Digital platforms are an ubiquitous phenomenon that threatens incumbent firms. Among digital platform providers, the competition is fierce. Platform giants such as Google, Amazon, or Microsoft strive for platform leadership. The question of how to achieve platform leadership is equally essential for platform companies and incumbent firms transforming into platform business models. This thesis aimed to provide a fundamental building block for the analysis of this question. In the first step, a taxonomy that conceptualizes platforms from a business model perspective was created. In the second part of this thesis, this taxonomy was used to analyze configurations of successful and leading platform business models. This thesis found multiple configurations of platform leaders within an ecosystem-level and firm-level model. The two models extended existing theory on the causal relation of factors on platform leadership.
Table of contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Motivation
1.2 Research questions
1.3 Research overview & philosophy
2. Theoretical background – digital platforms
2.1 Background, definitions & types of digital platforms
2.2 Perspectives on digital platforms
2.3 Platform ecosystems & dynamics
2.4 Determinants of platform leadership
2.5 Hypothesized configurational propositions for platform leadership
3. Research design – taxonomy development
3.1 Overview of the taxonomy development
3.2 Taxonomy development methodology
3.3 Grounded-theory literature review
3.4 Case database
3.5 Validation interviews
4. Results – Taxonomy development
4.1 Conceptual-to-empirical iteration
4.2 Empirical-to-conceptual iteration
4.3 Final iteration
5. Research design – fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis
5.1 Introduction and overview of fsQCA
5.2 fsQCA analysis steps
6. Results – fsQCA
6.1 Ecosystem-level model
6.2 Firm-level model
6.3 Derived configurational propositions for platform leadership
7. Discussion
7.1 Contribution to theory and practice
7.2 Limitations
7.3 Outlook & further research
Research Objectives and Themes
This thesis aims to provide a fundamental building block for understanding how platform leadership is achieved. The research seeks to classify digital platform business models and analyze the specific configurations of factors—such as platform type, innovation, and transaction environment—that contribute to sustained market leadership using a configurational approach.
- Development of a holistic taxonomy for digital platform business models.
- Analysis of successful platform configurations at both the ecosystem and firm level.
- Application of fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to identify leader configurations.
- Investigation of the influence of national factors, such as platform origin (US vs. Europe), on leadership.
- Evaluation of the interplay between platform openness, governance, and innovation strategy.
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2.1 Background, definitions & types of digital platforms
The economic study of platforms has been a research topic since the 1980s. The economists' Rochet and Tirole (2003, 2006) were among the firsts to operate in this field. Other influential economic work has followed in the early 2000s (Gawer & Cusumano, 2002). With the rise and success of online companies such as eBay, Amazon, or PayPal, the idea of platforms became popular for both researchers and professionals (Spulber, 2018). It garnered the attention of researchers, specifically within information systems (IS) research (Reuver et al., 2017). Since then, platforms have been a research object for academics from various research streams (Gawer, 2014).
As already introduced, research on platforms is divided into two different streams of literature. The economic stream defines platforms as markets and focuses on the related dynamics within and across platforms. The engineering design stream focuses on platforms as technological designs that foster innovation using modular components. (Gawer, 2014, p. 1240) Due to the heterogenic literature on platforms, researchers suggest unifying the different streams and perspectives (Gawer, 2014; Spulber, 2018). Gawer, in particular, proposed to view platforms as evolving organizations (2014) rather than conceptualize platforms either as markets (Rochet & Tirole, 2003) or modular technological architectures (Baldwin & Woodard, 2009).
This fragmented landscape of research also results in various definitions of platforms and associated concepts. Existing definitions suffer from either being too specific or too vague. This results in disagreement within platform literature about what constitutes a multi-sided platform (Hagiu & Wright, 2015). In the context of digital platforms, Reuver et al. (2017) argued that all literature, while providing a valuable partial explanation, lacks a holistic understanding of platforms. The authors, therefore, call for greater clarification of the core concepts.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter establishes the motivation for the study of digital platform leadership and defines the central research questions regarding the classification and design of such platforms.
2. Theoretical background – digital platforms: This chapter provides a comprehensive review of existing literature on platforms, categorizes them into different research perspectives, and summarizes key determinants of platform leadership.
3. Research design – taxonomy development: This chapter outlines the methodology used to create the holistic platform taxonomy, including literature review, case database creation, and expert validation.
4. Results – Taxonomy development: This chapter presents the iterative development of the platform taxonomy and provides the finalized framework containing multiple dimensions across five meta-characteristics.
5. Research design – fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis: This chapter introduces the methodological framework of fsQCA, explaining how it is applied to investigate configurational insights into platform leadership.
6. Results – fsQCA: This chapter details the findings from both the ecosystem-level and firm-level models, highlighting various configurations that lead to platform leadership.
7. Discussion: This chapter reflects on the theoretical and practical contributions of the findings, acknowledges study limitations, and suggests avenues for future platform research.
Keywords
taxonomy, digital platform, configurational analysis, platform leadership, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, ecosystem-level model, firm-level model, multi-sided platform, network effects, platform innovation, platform governance, platform design, business model
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this thesis?
The thesis focuses on uncovering what determines platform leadership in the digital economy by analyzing the complex interplay of firm-level and ecosystem-level factors.
What are the central thematic areas covered in this work?
The work covers platform taxonomies, ecosystem dynamics, technological architecture, governance perspectives, and configurational analysis techniques.
What is the core research question addressed by the author?
The thesis addresses how business models of digital platforms can be classified and what configurational differences distinguish platform leaders in various settings (e.g., B2B vs. B2C).
Which scientific methodology is primarily employed?
The research adopts a multi-method approach, combining an iterative grounded-theory based taxonomy development with a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA).
What does the main body of the work treat?
It treat the development of a comprehensive platform taxonomy, the assessment of platform ecosystems, and an empirical configuration analysis to find path-dependent success factors for platforms.
Which keywords characterize this investigation?
Key terms include taxonomy, platform leadership, configurational analysis, fsQCA, network effects, and platform governance.
How is platform leadership defined in this study?
Platform leadership is defined as the dominant market position that enables a firm to influence the technological and business trajectories of its industry ecosystem.
What are the findings regarding US-based platforms?
The study finds that US-based platforms often outcompete others, largely due to the favorable market conditions that allow them to leverage strong network effects more effectively.
What role does competition with complementors play according to the results?
Contrary to some existing research, the findings suggest that competition with complementors can actually be a core condition associated with platform leadership, particularly when it fosters platform-specific development.
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- Jonas Kaufmann-Ludwig (Autor:in), 2020, Digital Platform Leadership: Exploring the Role of National Factors, Platform, and Customer Type, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1239799
