Waiting Time in Platform Markets

We define platform waiting time as the time users spend dealing with/within the platform. Even if users on one side dislike waiting time, platforms have an incentive not to minimize it to get extra revenues from users on the other side. We argue that waiting time for one side tends to increase once the management of the other side is outsourced. This effect will be reinforced when the outsourced side is the more prominent source for revenue generation. Also, concentration on the outsourced (in-house) side moderates waiting time positively (negatively). We test our hypotheses in the U.S. airport industry and find that while outsourcing per se does not increase waiting time, combined with revenue prominence and concentration of outsourced side do have the predicted effects