Riding the waves: unraveling the influence of legitimacy, regulation, and governance on digital freight matching platform success

Purpose The impact and legitimacy of logistics platforms on governance are being diminished due to the unreasonable behavior of some logistics platform participants; as such, government regulations need to be strengthened to revitalize it. To address these concerns, this study aims to examine how pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy affect the cooperative performance of digital freight matching platforms. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research approach was used using a questionnaire and partial least squares structural equation modeling statistical method to sample and analyze data from 427 logistics service providers from China’s digital freight matching platforms. Findings Findings from this research indicated that pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy were positively associated with cooperative performance. Platform governance positively mediated the relationship between pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy and cooperative performance, while government regulatory desirability significantly moderated the relationship between pragmatic and cognitive legitimacy and cooperative performance. Originality/value The findings enhance digital platform research by exploring provider perspectives on platform legitimacy, empirically investigating its impact on cooperative performance, examining the mediating effects of platform governance and identifying the moderating role of regulatory rationality, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of digital economy platforms and offering insights for platform managers and government regulation.