Post-Pandemic Entrepreneurship and the Role of Delivery Services in Fostering Innovative Business Growth: Evidence from La Libertad, Peru

Abstract

In post-pandemic Peru, delivery platforms have become key market-access infrastructures for microenterprises, yet regional evidence remains limited. This study examines the extent to which—and under what conditions—the adoption of delivery services is associated with innovative business growth in La Libertad (2021–2025). A cross-sectional survey of 200 microentrepreneurs assessed delivery adoption, business model innovation (BMI), digital capabilities, and the institutional environment. Statistical analyses indicate that the use of delivery platforms is positively associated with business growth and that an indirect association operates through BMI. Likewise, higher levels of digital capabilities are associated with a steeper adoption–growth association, while more favorable institutional conditions are associated with higher odds of business formalization. These findings suggest that delivery platforms may function as catalysts for growth and formalization when adoption co-occurs with strategic redesign and digital skill development within supportive local ecosystems. The study contributes to sustainable entrepreneurship scholarship by providing regional-level evidence from a developing economy and underscoring that technological adoption alone is insufficient without complementary innovation and capability building. Although environmental metrics were not included, future research should incorporate verified indicators to assess the environmental dimension of delivery-based entrepreneurship comprehensively.

1. Introduction

Following the acute phase of COVID-19, economic recovery in Latin America has been marked by a restructuring of the entrepreneurial fabric and an acceleration of commercial digitization. In Peru, access to and use of e-commerce enabling technologies has become more widespread: in the fourth quarter of 2024, 96.0% of households reported having at least one information and communication technology (ICT), and 89.8% of the Internet-using population accessed it via mobile phone, reflecting the basic conditions for the expansion of business models intensive in digital channels [1]. Likewise, 15.1% of Internet users reported having made online purchases of products and/or services in October, November, and December 2024, an indicator that, although still moderate, shows a growing trend compared to 2023 (14.5%) [1]. These metrics of digital adoption provide the backdrop for analyzing the role of delivery services in the creation and growth of innovative businesses in specific regional contexts such as La Libertad.

Recent literature characterizes delivery services as part of an ecosystem of transactional platforms that reduce barriers to entry, provide ready-to-operate infrastructure (payments, last-mile logistics, online reputation), and enable new market access logics for nascent ventures [2]. However, it also warns of the strategic dependence and power asymmetries that emerge when the “platform-dependent” entrepreneur is subordinated to rules of visibility, fees, and governance that they do not control [2]. This duality—facilitating access and dependence—raises policy and management questions that remain open in heterogeneous regional economies.

This platform duality is consistent with multi-sided platform governance and competition dynamics discussed in the strategy and industrial organization literature, where rules and fee structures shape value capture and power asymmetries [3], and with network-based views on platform strategy and boundary conditions for performance [4].

In parallel, evidence on online food delivery (OFD) shows that these platforms have reconfigured the marketing environments for food and related services, accelerating the transition from offline to online and expanding on-demand delivery coverage [5]. A recent systematic mapping identifies regulatory gaps in labeling, promotion, composition, and pricing, underscoring that the public policy framework has not fully incorporated OFD platforms despite their scale and influence [5]. In terms of entrepreneurial opportunity, this implies a dynamic but still unstable e y space, in which commercial innovation coexists with challenges of quality, information, and competitive equity.

The department of La Libertad—one of the economic hubs of northern Peru—has productive and business conditions that make it relevant for studying this phenomenon. According to PRODUCE’s regional diagnostic report, in 2024 La Libertad had 127,299 formal companies and 126,462 MSMEs, of which 83.9% were concentrated in commerce and services. In addition, for every 100 existing companies, 7 entered the market and 2 left, reflecting an active business dynamic. However, 84.4% of MSMEs remain informal, which may affect their sustainability and access to financing [6]. These figures are part of a regional economy that contributed 4.8% of the national GDP in 2024 and employed around one million workers, with a greater concentration in services (38.9%) and agriculture (22.0%) [6].

In economic terms, INEI reported that 17 departments—including La Libertad—recorded growth in activity in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, suggesting an environment of recovery that could boost the adoption of delivery channels by local business initiatives [7]. However, the policy literature for MSMEs in Latin America emphasizes that gaps in digital capabilities, formalization, financing, and human capital continue to constrain the productivity and scaling of firms, making it necessary to place the expansion of delivery within a broader agenda for the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem [8].

From the perspective of business model innovation, delivery services have catalyzed the emergence of agile formats such as ghost/dark kitchens and quick commerce, which reduce fixed costs (real estate and floor space) and accelerate time to market through operations focused on production and dispatch [9,10]. These formats—although not without labor and regulatory issues—have been documented in Latin American cities and other urban contexts, suggesting that the recombination of minimal physical assets with digital assets (platforms, apps, demand analytics) enables new locally based ventures with expanded reach [5,9]. However, for a large share of micro and small enterprises, participation in third-party delivery platforms is increasingly driven by the need to preserve market access in a digitizing food services market, meaning that platform use often represents an operational necessity and a form of digital infrastructure, rather than a business model innovation (BMI) in and of itself.

The expansion of platforms has also reconfigured work patterns. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has documented the growing participation of workers in digital platforms in the region and the coexistence of income opportunities with deficits in social protection and working conditions, especially in delivery modalities [11]. For the entrepreneurial ecosystem, these tensions matter because of their impact on costs, brand reputation, and operational sustainability, and because the rules of the game around platform employment can affect the scalability and formalization of innovative businesses that depend on delivery [5,11].

This study focuses on the economic and social dimensions of entrepreneurship through delivery platforms, specifically examining business growth, employment generation, and formalization. While the environmental impacts of delivery services (packaging waste, last-mile emissions) are acknowledged as relevant concerns in the literature [5,9], the present research does not measure these variables objectively. Future studies should incorporate verified environmental metrics to provide a comprehensive sustainability assessment.

From a sustainability perspective, the economic and social dimensions of delivery platform adoption align with debates on inclusive growth, decent work, and resilience of microenterprises in developing economies. Sustainable entrepreneurship in this context requires not only business viability but also the generation of quality employment, formalization that ensures access to social protection and financing, and reduction in structural inequalities in market access [8]. The labor conditions and employment frameworks around platform work directly impact the social sustainability of ventures that depend on delivery [11]. While the environmental dimension of delivery (carbon footprint, waste) remains under-researched in regional contexts, understanding the economic-social sustainability of platform-based ventures is a prerequisite for comprehensive policy frameworks.

Despite growing attention, empirical evidence remains biased toward large cities or national analyses. In Peru, sectoral reports on e-commerce and delivery platforms offer useful aggregates, but rarely disaggregate impacts on business creation and growth at the departmental level or by cohort of ventures after 2020 [12,13]. This situation reveals a significant knowledge gap: there is still limited understanding of how delivery platforms influence the formation, innovation, and scaling of micro and small enterprises in regional economies characterized by high informality and service-based structures. In La Libertad, where the MSME fabric is concentrated in commerce and services and informality is high, it remains to be seen whether—and under what conditions—delivery platforms operate as an effective enabling lever for the creation and growth of ventures that engage in business model innovation and as an accelerator of their growth in sales and employment.

Within this framework, the following research question was posed: How and under what conditions does the use of delivery platforms, in interaction with business model innovation and complementary capabilities, contribute to the creation and growth of innovative businesses in La Libertad during the period 2021–2025?

Likewise, in order to answer this question, the following general objective was established: analyze the extent to which and under what conditions the adoption of delivery services contributes to the creation and growth of innovative businesses in La Libertad in the post-pandemic period (2021–2025), understood as ventures that reconfigure their business models around delivery rather than merely joining a platform. The specific objectives are: (i) to estimate the association between the use of delivery platforms and growth (sales/employment); (ii) to evaluate the mediating role of business model innovation; (iii) to examine the moderating role of digital capabilities and the institutional environment; and (iv) to characterize profiles of ventures that maximize the value of delivery in commerce and services.

This study seeks to fill this empirical and contextual gap by providing regional-level evidence from La Libertad, Peru, on how and under what conditions delivery platforms contribute to the creation, innovation, and growth of microenterprises in post-pandemic settings. By integrating business model innovation, digital capabilities, and institutional environment into a single analytical framework, the research advances theoretical understanding of platform-dependent entrepreneurship in developing economies and offers policy-relevant insights for fostering sustainable and inclusive business ecosystems.

The justification for the study rests on its scientific and social relevance. In scientific terms, it provides disaggregated regional evidence for a debate dominated by analyses of large markets and examines mechanisms (mediations and moderations) that have been little explored in contexts of high informality such as La Libertad. In social and public policy terms, it identifies conditions under which delivery can become a lever for formalization, productivity, and decent employment in the commerce and services sectors—outcomes aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 8 (decent work and economic growth)—when combined with business model innovation and digital upskilling on the part of entrepreneurs, without neglecting the risks of platform dependency and labor precariousness that threaten the sustainability of these ventures. The information generated can guide promotion instruments (training, technical assistance in e-commerce, incentives for formalization) and regulatory adjustments (data protection, algorithmic transparency, working conditions on platforms).

From a business sustainability lens, these labor dynamics are not merely social externalities but structural factors affecting the viability and scalability of platform-dependent ventures. Precarious working conditions can undermine service quality, increase turnover costs, and expose firms to reputational and regulatory risks [11]. Conversely, business models that align platform participation with decent work standards—through direct employment, social protection coverage, or fair revenue-sharing—may exhibit greater resilience and long-term performance. Thus, the social sustainability of delivery-enabled entrepreneurship is inseparable from the employment frameworks and power relations that govern platform-mediated work

The remainder of the document consists of six sections. After presenting the context and objectives of the research in Section 1, we provide the theoretical foundations that support the hypotheses in Section 2. Next, Section 3 illustrates the research design and methodology used in this study. Section 4 presents the results. Finally, Section 5 and Section 6 discuss the results and conclude the study, focusing explicitly on the value of the research and the relative policy implications.

2. Literature Review

2.1. The Adoption of Delivery Platforms as a Mechanism for Market Access

Delivery platforms reduce barriers to entry, increase visibility, and standardize commercial processes, but they also generate dependence on platform governance and fees [2,8]. Several studies have shown that intensive use of platforms correlates with revenue growth in the early stages, conditioned by algorithm rules and fees [2,5]. In multi-sided ecosystems, delivery platforms reduce search and transaction costs, standardize critical commercial processes (payments, last-mile logistics, rating/review systems), and increase visibility for micro and small enterprises, thereby lowering entry barriers and enabling access to new demand in regional markets with high informality [2,8].

However, for many micro and small enterprises, integration into third-party delivery platforms is driven primarily by the need to preserve market access in digitizing food and retail markets, rather than by an explicit strategic intent to innovate their business models. In this sense, platform participation is best understood as an external digital infrastructure and a channel for demand access, not as business model innovation (BMI) per se. The net effect of adoption is conditioned by platform governance (fee schedules, visibility and algorithmic rules) and network effects, which can create strategic dependence and power asymmetries for complementors [2,5].

This strategic dependence translates into tangible economic costs for microenterprises. Platform fees—typically ranging from 15% to 35% of transaction value in Latin American delivery markets— directly reduce profit margins, particularly for low-volume ventures operating with thin margins [14]. For food service microenterprises in Peru, where average net margins rarely exceed 10–15%, platform commissions can consume a substantial share of gross revenue, leaving insufficient residual income to reinvest in business model innovation or capability building. Additionally, platform dependency creates long-term strategic constraints: ventures that channel the majority of their demand through third-party platforms accumulate limited direct customer relationships, own no proprietary transaction data, and remain vulnerable to unilateral changes in fee structures, visibility algorithms, or service standards. This economic and strategic fragility raises fundamental questions about the sustainability of platform-mediated growth, particularly for ventures that lack the scale or capabilities to multi-home across platforms or develop owned digital channels [2,3]. Understanding when and for whom delivery platforms enable sustainable growth—rather than temporary revenue increases that mask eroding margins and deepening dependency—constitutes a critical empirical and policy question.

Conceptually, it is critical to distinguish between platform adoption as enabling infrastructure and business model innovation (BMI) as strategic value-capture mechanism. For micro and small enterprises in developing markets, joining delivery platforms is often necessity-driven—a response to preserve market access as commerce digitalizes—rather than a proactive strategic innovation [2,5]. Platform participation provides critical affordances (digital payments infrastructure, last-mile logistics outsourcing, algorithmic visibility) but does not automatically constitute BMI. Rather, BMI involves deliberate reconfiguration of how the firm creates, delivers, and captures value under platform-mediated conditions: redesigning offerings for delivery economics, segmenting customers using platform analytics, and engineering processes around the platform’s operational logic [9,10,15]. This distinction matters empirically because it predicts that adoption effects on performance will be mediated through—and conditional upon—firms’ capacity to engage in such strategic reconfigurations.

From a Resource-Based View (RBV), the platform is an external infrastructure; superior performance arises when the firm combines that access with idiosyncratic resources and capabilities—e.g., delivery operations know-how, online reputation management, and demand analytics—that are valuable, rare, and hard to imitate [16]. The Dynamic Capabilities perspective clarifies the mechanism: ventures that can sense opportunities on the platform, seize them through design choices, and reconfigure routines over time are more likely to translate platform affordances into sustained growth [17,18]. In other words, platform adoption is a necessary but not sufficient condition: growth differentials depend on how firms combine platform access with internal capabilities and model reconfigurations. Consequently, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1. 

The adoption of delivery platforms is positively associated with the growth of new businesses in La Libertad.

2.2. Business Model Innovation (BMI)

Prior research on digital transformation (DT) in innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has shown that the relationship between DT and performance is not purely direct: business model innovation (BMI) partially mediates the positive association between digitalization and outcomes [15]. The fundamental role of digital technology in enabling business model innovation has also been established [19]. Additionally, formats such as ghost kitchens and dark stores reconfigure the value chain, reduce physical assets, and accelerate time-to-market; their deployment is often accompanied by reconfigurations in assortment, packaging, and pricing specific to the delivery channel [9,10].

Theory suggests that platforms enable but do not guarantee growth: business model renewal is a key intermediate mechanism. Conceptually, BMI is the vehicle that converts platform-enabled access into value capture: it aligns the value proposition, revenue architecture, and executional capabilities to the specific economics of the delivery channel (assortment/menu engineering, packaging/logistics choices, delivery-specific pricing and in-app promotions) [9,10]. Importantly, the mere decision to join a delivery platform, without complementary changes in value creation, delivery, and capture, does not constitute BMI in a strict sense. BMI involves deliberate recombination and reconfiguration of how the firm operates under platform-mediated conditions, rather than the simple adoption of a new channel.

In this sense, BMI operationalizes the “seizing and reconfiguring” blocks of the Dynamic Capabilities framework, explaining why adoption without redesign tends to underperform and why iterative model experimentation matters in turbulent platform environments [17,18]. More broadly, BMI connects digital affordances to strategic outcomes by defining how the firm creates, delivers, and captures value under a platform-mediated structure [20]. Therefore,

H2. 

Business model innovation positively mediates the relationship between delivery platform adoption and business growth.

2.3. Digital Capabilities

Evidence indicates that entrepreneurial SMEs can improve their performance through the capabilities of digital platforms, aligning these capabilities with their strategic orientation [21,22]. Similarly, it has been shown that SME entrepreneurs, with the support of digital platform service providers, drive digital transformation by renewing managerial knowledge, developing managerial social capital, creating business teams, and developing organizational capabilities [23,24]. Likewise, evidence from MSME policies indicates that digital skills, last-mile logistics, analytics, and online reputation management moderate performance in digital environments; in turn, regulatory and employment frameworks on platforms influence costs and scalability [3,8,11].

In entrepreneurial SMEs, digital capabilities—such as demand analytics, online reputation and review management, and orchestration of payments and last-mile operations—enhance the returns to platform participation by enabling data-driven experimentation and rapid process adaptation [21,22,23,24]. Under RBV, these capabilities act as complementary resources that increase the productivity of the platform “asset” [16]; under the Dynamic Capabilities lens, they explain the positive moderation in H3 because they allow firms to sense, seize, and reconfigure digital resources into scalable routines and market-facing agility [17,25,26]. Thus, digital capabilities do not replace platform adoption, but shape how effectively adoption is transformed into BMI and growth.

H3. 

The digital capabilities of entrepreneurship positively moderate the effect of delivery adoption on growth.

From a Dynamic Capabilities perspective, digital skills and data-analytic routines enable firms to orchestrate platform affordances into superior outcomes, which theoretically explains the positive moderation in H3 [25]. The institutional environment further conditions outcomes by shaping the costs, risks, and scalability of platform participation: digital infrastructure quality affects service reliability; regulatory clarity and labor frameworks influence compliance costs and work arrangements; and platform governance (fee structures, gatekeeping, visibility) determines discoverability and margin realization [3,8,11]. Accordingly, a supportive institutional context is expected to raise the likelihood that adopters transition into formality and sustain growth trajectories, consistent with governance and network-based perspectives on multi-sided platforms.

H4. 

The quality of the institutional environment (digital infrastructure and labor regulation on platforms) positively moderates the relationship between delivery adoption and the creation of formal businesses. This proposition is also consistent with the antitrust and governance lens on multi-sided platforms, where institutional rules, fees, and visibility mechanisms condition firm outcomes and market entry trajectories [3], as well as with strategic perspectives on platform networks and complementarities [4].

2.4. Business Performance

Business performance in delivery-intensive SMEs is best conceived as a multidimensional construct combining financial and operational indicators (e.g., sales and employment growth, productivity proxies) with institutional outcomes relevant in developing contexts (e.g., formalization) [27,28]. In our framework, platform adoption provides market access, but realized performance is conditional: it is mediated by BMI (the value-conversion mechanism), moderated by digital capabilities (the routines that scale platform affordances), and facilitated by the institutional environment (the reduction in frictions and compliance costs) [3,11,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24].

In high-informality economies such as Peru, where 84.4% of MSMEs in La Libertad operate informally [6], formalization constitutes a critical business sustainability outcome beyond mere regulatory compliance. Formal status enables access to institutional credit, participation in value chains that require invoicing and tax documentation, eligibility for public procurement, and access to social protection systems for owners and workers [8]. From a sustainability perspective, formalization aligns microenterprise growth with inclusive development: it expands the tax base for public services, reduces unfair competition based on regulatory arbitrage, and extends social security coverage to previously excluded workers [6]. Platform adoption may lower formalization barriers by providing digital payment trails, standardized transaction records, and legitimacy signals that reduce perceived regulatory risks. However, the transition from informal to formal status is also conditioned by institutional frictions—administrative complexity, tax burdens relative to profit margins, and enforcement regimes—that vary substantially across regional contexts [8]. Consequently, the association between platform adoption and formalization is expected to depend on the quality of the institutional environment, as formalized in H4

RBV predicts superior performance when complementary, hard-to-imitate resources (analytics, logistics know-how, brand/reputation) are bundled with platform access [27], while Dynamic Capabilities theory explains sustained performance through continuous sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring in response to shifting governance, demand, and pricing on the platform [17,18]. Consistent with digital business strategy research, performance improvements arise when IT-enabled capabilities, BMI, and executional alignment co-evolve rather than when technology is adopted in isolation [29]. In this view, adoption of delivery platforms is a starting point that must be combined with BMI and capability-building to yield durable performance and formalization gains.

2.5. Platform Dependency, Economic Costs, and Sustainability Tensions

While platforms reduce entry barriers and expand market access, a growing critical literature documents substantial economic costs and structural dependencies that constrain the sustainability of platform-mediated entrepreneurship. Platform fees represent a significant direct cost: commission rates in food delivery typically range from 20% to 35% of gross transaction value, with additional charges for visibility boosts, priority listing, and payment processing [30].

For microenterprises operating with net margins of 8–12%, these fees can absorb the majority of potential profit, leaving insufficient resources for reinvestment in quality inputs, employee wages, or business model experimentation [14].

Beyond direct costs, platform dependency creates structural power asymmetries. Ventures that route the majority of demand through third-party platforms accumulate limited direct customer relationships, own no proprietary behavioral or transaction data, and remain subject to unilateral changes in algorithmic visibility, pricing rules, and service standards [2,3]. This “platform lock-in” is particularly pronounced for ventures lacking the scale to negotiate fee discounts or the capabilities to multi-home effectively across competing platforms [31].

Research on platform labor markets further documents precarious working conditions, income volatility, and absence of social protection for delivery workers—costs that may be externalized by platforms but ultimately affect service quality, reputational risk, and social sustainability for platform-dependent ventures [11].

From a sustainability perspective, these tensions imply that short-term performance gains documented in cross-sectional studies may not translate into durable, inclusive growth. Ventures experiencing revenue increases through platform adoption may simultaneously face margin compression, strategic subordination, and exposure to governance shocks (e.g., sudden fee increases, algorithm changes) that threaten long-term viability [2]. Consequently, research on platform-based entrepreneurship must examine not only growth associations but also profitability, strategic autonomy, and resilience—outcomes that require longitudinal data and explicit measurement of costs, dependencies, and downside scenarios.

In the present study, we focus on growth and formalization as primary outcomes, acknowledging that these represent necessary but insufficient conditions for sustainable entrepreneurship.

The observed positive associations between platform adoption and growth do not preclude the possibility that adopters face margin erosion, strategic dependence, or fragility to platform governance changes—dynamics that our cross-sectional design and performance measures do not capture. This limitation shapes the scope and interpretation of our findings and motivates explicit discussion of costs and risks alongside documented benefits.

3. Materials and Methods

This research adopted a quantitative cross-sectional approach with a non-experimental design to examine the relationships between the adoption of digital technologies, business model innovation, and the growth of microenterprises in the context of business sustainability [32]. Data collection was carried out through a structured questionnaire administered between August and September 2024 to a sample of 200 active microentrepreneurs located in the department of La Libertad. The study follows a regional case study design, considering La Libertad as a representative context of post-pandemic entrepreneurial recovery in northern Peru, characterized by high informality and a concentration of micro and small enterprises in commerce and services [33]. Given this cross-sectional, non-experimental design, all modeled relationships are interpreted as statistical associations rather than definitive causal effects.

The selection of participants followed non-probabilistic convenience sampling, exceeding the minimum sample size recommended for structural equation models with partial least squares (PLS-SEM) considering the complexity of the proposed model [34]. The inclusion criteria established that participants must be actively managing their businesses, have at least one year of operation, and be willing to provide information about their digital practices and business strategies. Data on demographic characteristics, level of formalization, economic sector, and provincial location were collected to allow for differentiated analysis.

The data collection instrument was developed based on validated scales identified in prior research on digital transformation, business model innovation, and SME performance [15,32,35,36]. The questionnaire was adapted to local business conditions through expert review and pilot testing with ten entrepreneurs to ensure contextual validity and clarity of the items.

Each variable included in the analytical model was operationalized as follows: delivery adoption (extent and intensity of platform use); business model innovation (BMI) (changes in value proposition, processes, and customer relationships); digital capabilities (technological skills, data analytics, and online reputation management); institutional environment (perceived infrastructure and regulatory conditions); and business growth (variation in sales and employment). Responses were measured on a five-point Likert scale. Importantly, delivery adoption was treated as participation in external digital infrastructure and access to platform-mediated demand, whereas BMI was modeled as a distinct construct capturing deliberate reconfigurations in how the firm creates, delivers, and captures value. In other words, the mere use of a third-party platform was not operationalized as business model innovation per se.

Environmental sustainability indicators were not included in the measurement instrument; the study concentrates on economic performance and social outcomes (formalization, employment). This operational design allowed for identifying direct, mediating, and moderating associations among constructs in a cross-sectional setting, using PLS-SEM (SmartPLS 4) for estimation, complemented by robustness analyses and regression models.

We employed PLS-SEM rather than covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM) for methodological and substantive reasons. First, our goal emphasizes prediction and explanation of key outcomes (growth and formalization) with mediation and moderation in a complex model with multiple latent constructs, which aligns with PLS-SEM’s variance-based orientation and out-of-sample predictive assessment using PLSpredict [37,38]. Second, given the sample size (n= 200) relative to model complexity, PLS-SEM offers greater statistical power and robustness, consistent with minimum-sample guidance for PLS path modeling in small-to-moderate samples [34], and with recent advances that deliver consistent PLS estimators under linear specifications [39]. Third, PLS-SEM is recommended for theory development and prediction-oriented studies in emerging contexts such as entrepreneurial SMEs undergoing digital transformation, where distributional assumptions may be violated and relationships are modeled for explaining variance rather than strict confirmatory fit [37,40]. Accordingly, we report both explanatory (R², f²) and predictive (Q², Q²_pred via PLSpredict) criteria in line with current best practices for PLS-SEM [28,37].

SmartPLS 4, a software specialized in structural equation modeling using partial least squares, recognized for its ability to handle complex models with latent variables and mediation-moderation relationships [40], was used for data analysis. Prior to the main analysis, exhaustive preprocessing was performed, including the detection and treatment of outliers, the analysis of missing data with imputation in cases where they represented more than 5% per variable, and the standardization of scales to facilitate comparability.

The descriptive analysis provided means, standard deviations, and proportions with their respective 95% confidence intervals, offering an initial overview of the sample characteristics. To test the hypotheses, three complementary analytical strategies were implemented following the methodological guidelines for studies of digital transformation in small businesses [41]. First, the direct effect of technology adoption on business growth (H1) was evaluated using HC3 robust error regression, controlling for demographic and contextual variables; in cases where the dependent variable was categorical, binary logistic regression was applied.

Second, to examine the mediating role of innovation in the business model (H2), a structural equation model was constructed in SmartPLS, calculating indirect effects using bootstrapping with 5000 replicates [37]. This procedure allowed us to obtain robust confidence intervals and evaluate the predictive capacity of the model through indicators such as R², f², and Q², complemented by the PLSpredict technique. The choice of innovation in business models as a mediating mechanism is based on recent empirical evidence demonstrating its role in channeling digital transformation and organizational performance in innovative SMEs [15]. The validity of the measurement model was verified using the HTMT criterion for discriminant validity, together with composite consistency analysis and factor loadings, following established protocols to ensure the robustness of the structural model.

Third, the moderating effects of digital capabilities and the business environment (H3 and H4) were evaluated by incorporating interaction terms focused on the structural model. Additionally, multigroup analyses were performed by segmenting the sample by economic sector, province, and level of formality, provided that the sample size of each segment had sufficient statistical power. This multilevel approach allowed us to capture the heterogeneity characteristic of microenterprises in sustainability contexts [42].

To minimize the common method, bias inherent in cross-sectional self-report studies, procedural remedies were implemented during data collection, including psychological separation between measurements, the use of reverse items, and guarantees of anonymity [43]. Ex post, diagnostic tests such as Harman’s single factor and complete collinearity analysis using VIF were applied, following the methodological recommendations established to control for potential biases in survey research [44]. The significance level was set at α = 0.05 with two-tailed tests; in analyses involving multiple comparisons, adjustments were applied using the Holm–Bonferroni or Benjamini–Hochberg methods to control the false discovery rate.

The study complied with all ethical standards required by MDPI Sustainability. Informed consent was obtained from all participants, ensuring the confidentiality and anonymity of their responses. The data were stored securely and used exclusively for research purposes. The data availability statement and complete ethical considerations are included in accordance with the journal’s editorial policies.

4. Results

4.1. Quality of the Measurement Model: Reliability and Validity

Table 1. Reliability and validity of the measurement model (PLS).

Construct (Abbreviation)	Items	Cronbach’s α	CR	AVE
Delivery adoption (ADOP)	5	0.86	0.90	0.61
Business model innovation (BMI)	10	0.91	0.93	0.60
Digital capabilities (DIGCAP)	6	0.88	0.91	0.62
Perceived institutional environment (INST)	5	0.82	0.87	0.56
Business growth (GROWTH)	3	0.78	0.84	0.57

shows the internal consistency of the constructs was adequate: Cronbach’s α coefficients ranged from 0.82 to 0.91; composite reliability (CR) ranged from 0.87 to 0.93; and average variance extracted (AVE) ranged from 0.56 to 0.62, exceeding the threshold of 0.50. Standardized loadings ranged from 0.72 to 0.89.

Table 2. Fornell–Larcker criterion (diagonal = √AVE).

	ADOP	BMI	DIGCAP	INST	GROWTH
ADOP	0.781
BMI	0.57	0.774
DIGCAP	0.38	0.41	0.787
INST	0.29	0.33	0.36	0.749
GROWTH	0.42	0.39	0.31	0.27	0.755

shows discriminant validity was corroborated by the Fornell–Larcker criterion (square roots of AVE greater than correlations) and in

Table 3. HTMT indices (all couples < 0.85).

	ADOP	BMI	DIGCAP	INST	GROWTH
ADOP		0.71	0.62	0.49	0.56
BMI			0.64	0.52	0.60
DIGCAP				0.58	0.55
INST					0.47
GROWTH

Note. Abbreviations: ADOP = adoption of delivery platforms; BMI = business model innovation; DIGCAP = digital capabilities; INST = institutional environment; GROWTH = business growth.

by HTMT (<0.85 in all pairs). Collinearity was not problematic (VIF 1.21–2.43). These procedures follow the recommendations for measurement evaluation in PLS-SEM [37,45,46].

4.2. Goodness of Fit and Predictive Power

Table 4. Fit and explanatory power of the PLS model.

Criteria	Value
SRMR	0.058
d_ULS	0.874
d_G	0.642
NFI	0.93
R2_BMI	0.42
R2_GROWTH	0.47
Q2_BMI	0.26
Q2_GROWTH	0.31
PLSpredict (Q2_pred)	>0

shows that the overall fit of the PLS-SEM model was adequate: SRMR = 0.058, d_ULS = 0.874, d_G = 0.642, and NFI = 0.93; structural collinearity remained below critical thresholds (VIF < 3). The explanatory power was substantial (R²_GROWTH = 0.47; R²_BMI = 0.42). Predictive relevance (blindfolding) was positive for endogenous constructs (Q²_GROWTH = 0.31; Q²_BMI = 0.26). In PLSpredict, Q²_pred > 0 and RMSE/MAE lower than the linear model for most indicators, supporting the predictive utility of the model [37,38,39,47].

4.3. Descriptive Statistics of the Sample (n = 200)

As shown in

Table 5. General and group-specific descriptives.

Variable	Mean/Median (SD/IQR)	n/%
Employees (median, RIC)	4 (2–7)
Seniority (months, mean SD)	25.3 (12.1)
Delivery sales (%)	38.0 (21.0)
Active platforms (n)	1.7 (0.8)
Formal status		112 (56%)
Informal status		88 (44%)
Food and beverages		80 (40%)
Retail		74 (37%)
Services		46 (23%)
Trujillo Province		124 (62%)

, the sample included 200 enterprises in La Libertad with a median of 4 workers (IQR: 2–7) and 25.3 months of operation (SD: 12.1). Fifty-six percent reported formal status and 44% inform. Sectors: food and beverages 40%, retail 37%, and services 23%. By province: Trujillo 62%, Chepén 9%, Virú 8%, Pacasmayo 7%, Ascope 6%, Otuzco 4%, and others 4%. Delivery intensity averaged 38% of sales (SD: 21%), with 1.7 active platforms (SD: 0.8) and 19.6 months of use (SD: 8.4). BMI, digital capabilities, and institutional environment showed averages of 4.8 (SD: 0.9), 4.5 (SD: 1.1), and 4.1 (SD: 1.0), respectively. Average annual growth was 12.4% in sales (SD: 19.3) and +0.9 jobs (SD: 2.2).

4.4. Structural Model and Hypothesis Testing

As shown in

Table 6. Structural equations (PLS-SEM) for GROWTH (bootstrap 5000).

Hypothesis	Path	β	t	p	95% CI	f2	Decision
H1	ADOPT → GROWTH	0.29	4.75	<0.001	[0.17; 0.41]	0.18	Accepted
	ADOP → BMI	0.48	9.12	<0.001	[0.38; 0.57]	0.29
	BMI → GROWTH	0.22	3.15	0.002	[0.08; 0.36]	0.16
H2	ADOP → BMI → GROWTH (ind.)	0.106		<0.001	[0.05; 0.17]		Accepted
H3	ADOP × DIGCAP → GROWTH	0.13	2.54	0.011	[0.03; 0.23]	0.04	Accepted

, the direct association from delivery adoption to growth (H1) was positive and significant (β = 0.29; t = 4.75; p < 0.001; 95% CI [0.17; 0.41]). Evidence was consistent with an indirect association via business model innovation (H2) was corroborated by the effects ADOP → BMI (β = 0.48; t = 9.12; p < 0.001) and BMI → GROWTH (β = 0.22; t = 3.15; p = 0.002); the indirect association ADOP → BMI → GROWTH was 0.106 (bootstrap 5000), 95% CI [0.05; 0.17], p < 0.001. The interaction with digital capabilities (H3) was significant (β_interaction = 0.13; t = 2.54; p = 0.011), indicating that the adoption-growth association is steeper at higher levels of DIGCAP. For H4, logistic regression with ADOP × INST interaction was associated with higher odds of formalization (OR = 1.68; 95% CI [1.20; 2.41]; p = 0.003), results shown in

Table 7. Institutional moderation and formalization (logistic regression).

Parameter	OR	95% CI	p
ADOP (main)	1.23	[1.02; 1.49]	0.030
INST (principal)	1.34	[1.11; 1.62]	0.002
ADOP × INST (interaction)	1.68	[1.20; 2.41]	0.003
AUC	0.76
R2_Nagelkerke	0.19
Hosmer–Lemeshow			0.42

. The specification and reporting follow good practices of moderation and mediation [29,48,49,50,51].

In substantive terms, these coefficients indicate meaningful effects. The standardized path coefficient of 0.29 (H1) suggests that a one-standard-deviation increase in delivery adoption is associated with approximately 0.3 standard deviations higher growth—a moderate effect aligned with the observed mean sales growth of 12.4%. The mediation analysis reveals that business model innovation accounts for roughly one-third of the total effect of adoption on growth (indirect/total = 0.106/0.396 ≈ 27%), underscoring that platform adoption without strategic reconfiguration yields limited returns. The moderating effect of digital capabilities (β = 0.13) implies that firms with high digital literacy experience adoption-to-growth slopes approximately 45% steeper than those with low capabilities. Finally, the odds ratio of 1.68 for formalization indicates that ventures operating under favorable institutional conditions are 68% more likely to formalize when adopting delivery platforms, controlling for adoption intensity and other covariates.

4.5. Complementary Analyses and Robustness

Multigroup analysis by sector, province, and status (formal vs. informal) showed stability of key effects (|Δβ| < 0.07). Alternative specifications using OLS with robust errors (HC3) were consistent with PLS-SEM. Out-of-sample prediction showed PLS error metrics lower than the linear benchmark for most indicators. Common method biases were assessed and mitigated with procedural remedies and ex post tests [44,52,53].

5. Discussion

5.1. Research Question and Proposed Contributions

The findings show that delivery platforms are associated with the creation and growth in La Libertad when adoption is combined with business model innovation (BMI) and strengthened by digital capabilities within supportive institutional conditions. Interpreting these results through a dynamic capabilities lens clarifies why the adoption–growth link strengthens with analytics literacy and digital tool mastery [25], while platform governance and multi-sided fee structures help explain the formalization gains under more supportive institutions [3], in line with emerging platform strategy research [4]. The positive direct association from adoption to growth answers the RQ and supports H1 (see Table 5), while the indirect path via BMI clarifies how adoption translates into performance (H2). This pattern is consistent with evidence that platforms expand market access but require reconfiguration of value creation and capture to yield sustained gains [15,19,21,22,23,24]. The interaction with digital capabilities (H3) indicates that the adoption-growth association is larger at higher levels of analytics literacy and reputation management, in line with the dynamic capabilities view [25]. Finally, the interaction between adoption and the institutional environment (H4, Table 7) aligns with research on multi-sided platform governance and the role of rules, fees, and visibility in shaping outcomes [2,3,4].

In theoretical terms, entrepreneurs’ perceptions of institutional quality operate as a boundary condition that shapes the strength of observed associations. In Peru, subjective assessments of digital infrastructure reliability, regulatory clarity for platform-mediated work, and administrative frictions around licensing vary substantially across provinces and reflect entrepreneurs’ experienced realities of transaction costs, trust, and operational uncertainty. Accordingly, adoption is more strongly associated with growth and formalization where entrepreneurs perceive infrastructure reliability and regulatory clarity to be higher, and less strongly associated where perceived bottlenecks raise experienced frictions or uncertainty. This reading is consistent with perspectives on platform governance and networked intermediation, where institutional rules and gatekeeping influence complementors’ outcomes, and with the idea that capabilities and perceived institutional support jointly condition the realization of value from digital adoption [2,3,4,17,18,20]. Importantly, our findings speak to the role of perceived institutional quality as experienced by entrepreneurs; whether objective improvements in infrastructure or regulation would yield similar moderating effects remains an empirical question for future research with objective institutional indicators.

From a business sustainability standpoint, these findings also reveal an important strategic tension. While platform adoption is positively associated with growth and formalization, ventures operating primarily through third-party platforms face structural dependencies that may constrain long-term sustainability. Platform operators retain control over critical business functions—pricing rules, visibility algorithms, customer data access, and service standards—creating power asymmetries that can affect margin realization and strategic autonomy [2,3]. This dependency implies that the documented performance gains, while meaningful in the short-to-medium term documented here, may require continuous adaptation as platform governance evolves. Sustainable platform-based entrepreneurship thus demands not only digital capabilities and BMI, but also strategic diversification (e.g., owned channels, multi-homing across platforms) and collective organization (e.g., associations that negotiate fee structures and working conditions) to build resilience against unilateral platform governance changes.

5.2. Mechanisms That Link Adoption to Outcomes: Mediation and Moderation

The evidence supports a “platform → BMI → growth” transmission mechanism: platforms open access (payments, last-mile logistics, visibility), while BMI operationalizes value capture through portfolio/menu redesign, packaging/logistics choices, pricing, and in-app promotions (H2). Without such redesigns, adoption alone is associated with smaller gains, which is consistent with the size and significance of the indirect association. These results are consistent with prior work showing that platforms expand market reach but performance depends on firms’ ability to reconfigure how they create and capture value [15,19,20,21,22,23,24]. From a capabilities perspective, the moderating role of digital capabilities clarifies why returns to adoption steepen with analytics literacy, online reputation management, and tool mastery (H3): capabilities are the complements that allow firms to orchestrate platform affordances into stronger observed outcomes—an interpretation aligned with the dynamic capabilities perspective [25]. Finally, the institutional moderation indicates that adoption is associated with higher odds of formalization when infrastructure, regulatory clarity, and labor frameworks are more favorable (H4), cohering with scholarship on multi-sided platform governance and power asymmetries [3] and platform strategy under network conditions [4]. Empirical anchors for these claims appear in the structural paths and interaction terms estimated for H1–H4.

Conceptually, perceived institutional quality acts as a complement that shapes how platform access translates into observed outcomes. Entrepreneurs who experience reliable infrastructure (coverage, speed, uptime), clear consumer and data-protection standards, transparent platform labor frameworks, and streamlined business licensing report conditions more conducive to last-mile reliability, customer trust, cost management, and formalization. In this configuration, the adoption–growth association tends to be stronger, and the odds of formalization higher, where these perceived institutional complements are present. This pattern coheres with scholarship on multi-sided platform governance and strategy under network conditions, which posits that rules, fees, and visibility regimes condition how complementors capture value on the platform [2,3,4,18,20]. However, we emphasize that these findings describe associations with subjective institutional perceptions; they do not demonstrate that objective institutional reforms would produce identical effects, as perception-reality gaps may exist.

5.3. Answering the RQs and Explaining the Model

Adoption is associated with creation and growth to the extent that firms undertake BMI (mediation) and possess higher digital capabilities (moderation) within a supportive institutional environment (moderation). Substantively, the standardized association for H1 is moderate (Table 5), the BMI pathway explains a meaningful share of the total association (H2), and capabilities are associated with a steeper adoption-growth slope (H3), and institutional quality increases the odds of formalization among adopters (H4, Table 7). This integrated mechanism—platform → BMI → growth, amplified by capabilities and institutions—matches prior accounts showing that business model redesign and capability building are the critical complements to platform participation [15,17,22,24].

5.4. Linking Theory to Practice: Useful Takeaways

Entrepreneurs (micro and small): treat platforms as infrastructure and invest concurrently in BMI (menu/assortment engineering, cycle-time optimization, delivery-specific pricing/promotion) and digital skills (basic analytics, rating/review management). This combination is what the data associate with steeper performance gains.

Ecosystem builders (accelerators, chambers): complement “go-digital” programs with hands-on business-model advisory and capability bootcamps; isolated adoption subsidies are less likely to be associated with sizable gains relative to support that funds experiment-and-learn BMI and analytics literacy, in line with integrated digital business strategy thinking [17].

Policymakers: to align adoption with inclusive growth and formalization, bundle regulatory simplification and infrastructure upgrades with transitional incentives (e.g., preferential credit access conditional on formal status; temporary co-financing of platform fees during formalization). The empirical ADOP × INST effect provides the rationale for such policy design.

In Peru’s context, the documented moderating role of perceived institutional quality suggests that policy interventions aimed at improving entrepreneurs’ experienced institutional environment—such as digital infrastructure upgrades, simplified municipal licensing and tax registration, interoperable e-payments, and clear standards for platform work—may strengthen adoption–growth associations and increase formalization odds, provided that objective improvements translate into experienced reductions in transaction costs and uncertainty. However, because our measure captures subjective perceptions rather than objective institutional metrics, we cannot definitively conclude which specific institutional reforms would be most effective. Future research should combine subjective perception measures with objective provincial-level indicators (e.g., broadband coverage rates, business registration processing times, regulatory enforcement indices) to identify which institutional dimensions matter most and whether perception-reality gaps mediate or moderate observed effects.

5.5. Implications, Limitations and Future Research

This study relies on a cross-sectional survey, which necessarily precludes definitive causal inference among delivery adoption, business model innovation, digital capabilities, institutional environment, and performance outcomes. The observed relationships should be interpreted as associations that may be affected by reverse causality and unobserved confounding. Although we implemented procedural and ex-post remedies for common method variance and conducted robustness checks, these steps do not establish causality [34]. Future research should employ longitudinal panels or quasi-experimental designs, and ideally field experiments, to identify dynamic effects and more credible causal mechanisms in platform-dependent entrepreneurial settings [2].

The moderating role of the institutional environment also implies systematic heterogeneity across localities in Peru: similar levels of adoption may relate to different outcomes depending on infrastructure reliability, regulatory clarity, and administrative frictions. Future work should explicitly measure these dimensions at the provincial/municipal level to examine how institutional complements shape the realization of delivery-enabled innovation and formalization.

Delivery platforms appear to function as market-access infrastructure and are associated with the creation and growth of innovative ventures, particularly when adoption co-occurs with BMI and is reinforced by stronger digital capabilities within supportive institutional environments. In practical terms, adoption is necessary but insufficient on its own; the performance gains materialize through strategic redesign (BMI) and capability building, with institutional quality increasing the likelihood that adoption translates into formalization.

First, the study specifies how platform adoption translates into performance by documenting a mediated mechanism—platform adoption → BMI → growth—showing that platforms create options, while BMI converts those options into captured value. Second, it identifies capability complementarities (digital skills and analytics) as moderators that amplify returns to adoption, clarifying boundary conditions under which digital participation pays off. Third, it links institutional quality to formalization among adopters, connecting firm-level performance to inclusive development dynamics in high-informality economies. Together, these contributions move beyond a “technology-adoption equals growth” narrative toward a contingent, mechanism-based view of platform-dependent entrepreneurship.

By delivering subnational, post-pandemic evidence from La Libertad, the study extends a literature dominated by national/metro-level analyses and shows that regional ecosystem conditions meaningfully shape outcomes. The results integrate constructs often examined in isolation (adoption, BMI, capabilities, institutional environment) into a single explanatory schema, offering a portable framework that researchers can test in other developing regions and sectors. This strengthens theory-building around value realization in platform contexts and formalization pathways in informal economies.

We now know that: (i) the adoption–growth link is moderate in size and non-automatic; (ii) a non-trivial share of adoption’s effect operates through BMI; (iii) digital capabilities systematically steepen the adoption–growth slope; and (iv) institutional conditions (infrastructure/regulation) increase the odds that adopters formalize. Therefore, effective digital transformation for microenterprises in regional economies is best conceived as a bundle—platform participation plus business-model redesign plus capability development—supported by institutional enablers.

For entrepreneurs, treat platforms as infrastructure and invest in BMI (assortment/menu engineering, delivery-specific pricing/promotion, packaging/logistics) and analytics/reputation management to unlock steeper gains. For ecosystem organizations, complement “go-digital” programs with hands-on BMI advisory and capability bootcamps; generic digitization subsidies underperform compared to support that co-finances experimentation and analytics literacy. For policymakers, pair regulatory simplification and infrastructure upgrades with transitional incentives (e.g., preferential credit tied to formal status; temporary fee co-financing) to leverage the documented adoption × institution effect and convert adoption into inclusive growth with formalization.

The cross-sectional, self-reported design limits causal inference and may be subject to common-method variance despite procedural and ex-post remedies. The non-probabilistic sample constrains generalizability outside the profiled strata. Environmental sustainability outcomes were not directly measured, so conclusions pertain to economic and social dimensions only. These limitations motivate the research agenda below.

Priorities include: (i) longitudinal or quasi-experimental designs to identify dynamics and durability of the mediated–moderated mechanism; (ii) integration of verified environmental metrics (e.g., last-mile emissions, packaging externalities) to complete the sustainability assessment; (iii) analysis of heterogeneous effects across sectors/provinces as platform governance and local infrastructure vary; and (iv) field experiments on algorithmic transparency and fee structures to evaluate regulatory and programmatic levers that can amplify BMI and formalization among adopters.

Future research should employ longitudinal or quasi-experimental designs to strengthen causal identification, incorporating interdepartmental comparisons that account for logistical shocks and institutional variation. Field experiments on algorithmic transparency, fee structures, and platform governance schemes would yield valuable evidence for sectoral regulation. Priority areas for future research include: (i) the integration of verified environmental sustainability metrics (carbon footprint, packaging lifecycle, waste management) currently absent from this analysis; (ii) longitudinal assessment of distributional impacts on platform workers; and (iii) comparative studies across regions with different regulatory frameworks.

In sum, in the specific context of La Libertad, the adoption of delivery services drives the growth of new businesses when combined with business model innovation and the development of digital capabilities, within an institutional environment that promotes formalization. This analytical framework offers a grounded roadmap for public policy and business practice geared toward economic and social sustainability in regional contexts characterized by high informality, sectoral concentration, and digital divides, contributing specifically to Sustainable Development Goal 8 (decent work and economic growth) while recognizing that comprehensive sustainability assessment requires the integration of environmental dimensions in future research.

6. Conclusions

This study shows that participation in delivery platforms—often an operational necessity to remain competitive in urban food markets—is positively associated with microenterprise growth in La Libertad and that an indirect association operates through business model innovation (BMI). Rather than treating platform adoption itself as a strategic innovation, we interpret it as a form of digital infrastructure that can enable BMI when entrepreneurs reconfigure how they create, deliver, and capture value. The interaction with digital capabilities indicates that the adoption–growth association is steeper for ventures with stronger analytics, reputation management, and digital operations, while a more favorable institutional environment is associated with higher odds of formalization. Taken together, the evidence supports an integrated pattern—platform participation → BMI → growth, amplified by capabilities and institutions—clarifying how and under what conditions operating through platforms relates to performance in a regional, high-informality context.

Theoretically, the findings contribute to platform-based entrepreneurship by specifying a mechanism-oriented, contingent view: platforms expand market access and create digital affordances, but value realization depends on BMI (conversion mechanism), complementary digital capabilities, and institutional complements (infrastructure and regulatory clarity). This perspective integrates RBV and Dynamic Capabilities, highlighting sensing–seizing–reconfiguring as the route through which a largely “defensive” or necessity-driven adoption of platforms can be transformed into observable performance outcomes, provided that entrepreneurs engage in deliberate reconfigurations of their models.

Managerially, the results suggest that entrepreneurs should not equate “being on the platform” with innovating. Stronger outcomes arise when platform participation is paired with delivery-specific BMI and digital upskilling—such as redesigning offerings for delivery, segmenting customers using platform data, and building routines for online reputation management and operational reliability. Ecosystem builders should prioritize programs that co-finance experimentation in BMI and build analytics/reputation routines, rather than generic “go-digital” subsidies that focus only on onboarding to platforms. For policymakers, our findings suggest—but do not conclusively demonstrate—that improvements in the institutional environment may strengthen the association between platform adoption and business outcomes. Specifically, entrepreneurs who perceive higher institutional quality (reliable infrastructure, clear regulations, streamlined formalization processes) exhibit steeper adoption–growth slopes and higher formalization probabilities. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that objective institutional reforms—digital infrastructure upgrades, simplified licensing and tax onboarding, interoperable e-payments, and transparent standards for platform work—would enhance entrepreneurial outcomes. However, because we measured perceptions rather than objective institutional conditions, these policy implications should be validated through implementation research that tracks entrepreneurial responses to specific institutional interventions. Pilot programs combining institutional improvements with longitudinal outcome measurement would help identify which reforms most effectively translate into experienced benefits and sustained performance gains.

Given the cross-sectional design, all relationships should be interpreted as statistical associations rather than definitive causal effects. A further limitation is that our operationalization of platform participation does not distinguish between adoptions driven primarily by survival or competitive pressure and those that reflect an explicit strategic intent to innovate the business model. Consequently, the results should be read as evidence that platform use is associated with BMI and growth, not that adoption alone constitutes strategic BMI. Future research can extend these insights with longitudinal or quasi-experimental designs, with finer measures of the motives and depth of platform integration, and with verified environmental indicators to complete the sustainability lens.