The term “platform” is now popular in a variety of contexts. What do “platforms” mean, and what research might guide our appreciation?
Let’s outline some questions:
- A. What came before the rise of platforms?
- B. What types of platforms are there?
- C. Why take a platform approach?
- D. How do platforms manifest?
- E. Why might a platform not be viable?
- F. How are digital and non-digital platforms different?
- G. What don’t researchers know about digital platforms?
- H. What are the economic consequences of the platform economy?
The articles cited below are not exhaustive, but they may give a sense of the ballpark.
A. What came before the rise of platforms?
The industrial age was typified by descriptions of “supply chains” and “value chains”, which otherwise may be called “pipelines”. Marshall Van Alstyne, Geoffrey G. Parker, and Sangeet Paul Choudary write:
… Read more (in a new tab)… platforms differ from the conventional “pipeline” businesses that have dominated industry for decades. Pipeline businesses create value by controlling a linear series of activities — the classic value-chain model. Inputs at one end of the chain (say, materials from suppliers) undergo a series of steps that transform them into an output that’s worth more: the finished product. [….]
The move from pipeline to platform involves three key shifts:
1. From resource control to resource orchestration. The resource-based view of competition holds that firms gain advantage by controlling scarce and valuable — ideally, inimitable — assets.
The term “platform” is now popular in a variety of contexts. What do “platforms” mean, and what research might guide our appreciation?
Let’s outline some questions:
- A. What came before the rise of platforms?
- B. What types of platforms are there?
- C. Why take a platform approach?
- D. How do platforms manifest?
- E. Why might a platform not be viable?
- F. How are digital and non-digital platforms different?
- G. What don’t researchers know about digital platforms?
- H. What are the economic consequences of the platform economy?
The articles cited below are not exhaustive, but they may give a sense of the ballpark.
A. What came before the rise of platforms?
The industrial age was typified by descriptions of “supply chains” and “value chains”, which otherwise may be called “pipelines”. Marshall Van Alstyne, Geoffrey G. Parker, and Sangeet Paul Choudary write:
… Read more (in a new tab)… platforms differ from the conventional “pipeline” businesses that have dominated industry for decades. Pipeline businesses create value by controlling a linear series of activities — the classic value-chain model. Inputs at one end of the chain (say, materials from suppliers) undergo a series of steps that transform them into an output that’s worth more: the finished product. [….]
The move from pipeline to platform involves three key shifts:
1. From resource control to resource orchestration. The resource-based view of competition holds that firms gain advantage by controlling scarce and valuable — ideally, inimitable — assets.
