Effect of corporate reputation and coopetitive branding strategy on digital products sales: Evidence from digital video game industry

Abstract

This research examines the impact of the corporate reputation of game developers and publishers and their coopetitive branding strategy on digital video game sales. The study utilizes empirical data from Steam, the world’s largest digital video game distributor. Drawing on signaling theory, the study reveals the effect of two types of quality cues—corporate reputation and coopetitive branding strategy—on digital video game sales. The study finds the positive effect of both parties’ corporate reputations on sales. Additionally, it finds the moderation effect of their reputation on the relationship between product popularity and sales, emphasizing the importance of corporate reputation in the digital video game market with enormous product diversity. Regarding a coopetitive branding strategy’s effect, the findings disclose that only developer coopetitive branding—labeling multiple developer brands in a competitive relationship—effectively increases sales, while publisher coopetitive branding has no significant effect.