Collaborative Governance of Involutionary Competition in Platform Economy Under Traffic Contestation: A Case Study of China’s Food Delivery Platforms

Abstract

The entry of JD.com into the food delivery sector and the ensuing subsidy competition have resulted in irrational competition, merchant profit squeezes, and food safety risks in China. This study therefore investigates the collaborative governance mechanisms for food delivery platforms under involutionary competition driven by traffic contestation. A two-agent evolutionary game model between platforms and merchants is developed, and Q-learning simulations are conducted to capture dynamic learning behaviors. The analysis examines the effects of coupon face value, cost-sharing mechanisms, traffic incentives, and government incentive-penalty policies on the strategic choices of both agents. Key findings reveal that merchants are more sensitive than platforms to traffic incentives and government penalties. Traffic-dependent merchants and traffic-independent merchants exhibit significantly different responses to government interventions. The coupon face value demonstrates a threshold effect, where only a reasonable range encourages compliant behavior among both parties. Based on these results, a collaborative governance framework is proposed. For traffic-dependent merchants, the government should focus on regulating platform behaviors and supervising coupon value controls, while platforms should establish a reward-oriented, penalty-supported incentive mechanism. For traffic-independent merchants, the government should strengthen consumer-reporting penalty mechanisms and strictly control collusion risks between platforms and merchants. Platforms should increase inspection frequency and reinforce penalties to prevent, at the source, the decline in product quality and market disorder induced by involutionary competition. This study provides strategic insights for achieving collaborative governance of involutionary competition in platform economies under intense traffic contestation.