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1 – 10 of over 57000Payam Hanafizadeh, Bayan Khosravi and Seyed Habibollah Tabatabaeian
Selecting an appropriate theory has always remained a critical task for the digital policy researchers. The literature seems to miss providing theoretical accounts of policy view…
Abstract
Purpose
Selecting an appropriate theory has always remained a critical task for the digital policy researchers. The literature seems to miss providing theoretical accounts of policy view of the digital platforms governance and offering tools for measuring the effectiveness of policies. To this end, this paper aims to provide a critical review and comparison of dominant information systems (IS) theories used. It highlights the weaknesses of these theories to explain technology features and actor- technology interactions with the rising trend of digital platforms. The main argument of this research is that the policymakers will not have adequate tools for policymaking of digital platforms by following the assumptions of theories used dominantly in the IS field.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyzes the assumptions of dominant IS theories and their applications in the digital policy literature. Then, it shows to what extent these theories are incapable of conceptualizing features of technology and actors’ role in policymaking and governance of digital platforms.
Findings
This paper identifies three aspects of digital platforms, including layered architecture, multisided (“side” means “participants”) and user interaction based, that dominant IS theories have shortcomings in explaining them.
Practical implications
The findings of this research can help authorities to take a more realistic view in defining digital platform policy objectives and applying more appropriate tools in policy implementation.
Originality/value
Discussing insights into the shortcomings of theories helps to define the theoretical requirements for studying policymaking and governance of digital platforms. It also suggests opportunities and recommendations for future studies.
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Tomas Ivan Träskman and Matti Skoog
The present study aims to address the emergence of platform-organized open innovation (OI). The research has the two main aims: the first is to increase the understanding of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aims to address the emergence of platform-organized open innovation (OI). The research has the two main aims: the first is to increase the understanding of the performance of OI by investigating how the achievements of OI are measured in situated practices from a performative and strategic knowledge management (SKM) orientation. The methodological disadvantages of not pre-given case selection are partially counterbalanced by the second aim of the research, which is to extend existing SKM theory and examine how platforms create knowledge as they include actors and digital devices, thereby potentially redistributing relations of accountability.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on performativity theory, the paper studies how the achievements and knowledge created in OI are managed and evaluated in practice. The case description draws on different sources from a spiral case study, as openness is performed by platform, firm, crowd and innovation intermediaries.
Findings
The paper illustrates how a strategy of digitally enabled openness brings its own issues as platforms enable knowledge sharing and perform a redistribution of accountability. In the heterarchies studied through this research endeavor, managers and their team members were accountable not only to multiple units, or teams, across the organization, but also to the crowd. The case material demonstrates that the ecology of devices and their performative struggles create lateral accountability.
Research limitations/implications
While recent streams of research suggest that the context of OI (i.e. distributed sources of knowledge for innovation) shifts the unit of analysis of organization design from the individual firm to networks of actors organized on platforms, the authors find that the focal firm still remains a key conceptual parameter in SKM research, which, in turn, makes it difficult to capture the suggested radicality of OI.
Practical implications
The authors show, that in practice, the firm has to take into account the performance of the external crowd and at times put resources into its training and education. In heterarchy, distributed authority is assumed to be facilitated through lateral accountability, whereby the traditional principles of vertical authority no longer hold, but rather, managers and their team members can be accountable to multiple units, or teams, across the organization.
Originality/value
The paper develops a performative theory of openness. OI is a model, strategy and socio-material practice whereby digital designs create an ecology of devices that can enact all kinds of openness. Ultimately, the current paper proposes that SKM and OI theory need to consider how platforms perform relations of accountability beyond the boundaries of the single organization.
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Yi Zhang, Renhuai Liu and Haiquan Chen
This paper aims to answer the following two questions: What are the affecting factors of platform leadership? How do the business ecosystem and unique attributes of platform…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to answer the following two questions: What are the affecting factors of platform leadership? How do the business ecosystem and unique attributes of platform enterprises affect the formation of platform leadership?
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the niche theory, this study used the grounded theory research methods to explore the strategic behavior of platform enterprises, analyze the characteristics of platform leadership and systematically explore the influencing factors of platform leadership based on four internet platform enterprises and their business ecosystem.
Findings
The result shows that the acquisition of platform leadership is closely related to the platform enterprises’ Niche, where they are located in the business ecosystem. Platform enterprises play the roles of the founder, coordinator, leader and arranger in the ecosystem, and there are four affecting factors of platform leadership: architecture foundation, connection and coordination, innovation leading and integrated expansion. The architecture foundation consists of four factors: platform architecture, installation base, intellectual property and network coverage; the connection and coordination contain five factors: interactive collaboration, multilateral user connection, information matching, neutral arbitration and mutualism; the innovation leading is composed of four factors: research and development investment, common components, complementary innovation, cross-border search and standard-setting; the integrated expansion includes resource orchestration, modular design, data collaboration, supportive enabling and scenario application.
Originality/value
This research constructs a framework of platform leadership with the influencing factors.
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This paper aims to examine the effect of Web-based financial reporting and social media platforms on the proxies of information asymmetry in the Saudi Stock Exchange.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effect of Web-based financial reporting and social media platforms on the proxies of information asymmetry in the Saudi Stock Exchange.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample of this paper consists of 133 Saudi listed non-financial companies for the year 2019. Web-based disclosure level was measured using 25 items, and the social media platforms examined in this study are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The information asymmetry proxies are measured using the relative spread and the time-weighted average bid-ask spread.
Findings
The empirical results have shown that there is a negative and significant relation between Web-based financial reporting and the adoption of social media platforms and the proxies of information asymmetry. Indeed, the relative spread and the time-weighted average bid-ask spread decreased with increased Web-based reporting levels. Among three platforms (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), the results show that only the use of Twitter as a channel for information disclosure has a negative and significant effect on information asymmetry proxies. Consequently, in the Saudi context, the authors demonstrate that the assumptions of the agency, stewardship and signaling theories are supported. Also, results reveal that the effect of information disclosure through websites and social media on reducing information asymmetry is stronger for large companies than small companies.
Practical implications
The paper provides new insights into the role played by websites and social media platforms in the reduction of the information asymmetry in the stock market. Consequently, investors and regulatory authorities in the Saudi financial market must give great importance to online information disclosure and its implications for lowering information asymmetry. This empirical study informs regulators in Saudi Arabia to conduct the better practice of Web-based and social media financial reporting and to regulate the current practice of information disclosure. Besides, the obtained results have the potential to convince firms’ managers to improve online information disclosure to benefit from the reduction in information asymmetry.
Originality/value
Unlike previous studies, this study investigates, simultaneously, the effect of Web-based and social media information disclosure on the proxies of information asymmetry in a developing economy. In addition, the hypotheses of this study are developed based on a set of theories (the agency, signaling and stewardship theories), to verify the applicability of these three theories in the Saudi context.
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Kristine M. Kuhn, Jeroen Meijerink and Anne Keegan
This work examines the intersection between traditional human resource management and the novel employment arrangements of the expanding gig economy. While there is a substantial…
Abstract
This work examines the intersection between traditional human resource management and the novel employment arrangements of the expanding gig economy. While there is a substantial multidisciplinary literature on the digital platform labor phenomenon, it has been largely centered on the experiences of gig workers. As digital labor platforms continue to grow and specialize, more managers, executives, and human resource practitioners will need to make decisions about whether and how to utilize gig workers. Here the authors explore and interrogate the unique features of human resource management (HRM) activities in the context of digital labor platforms. The authors discuss challenges and opportunities regarding (1) HRM in organizations that outsource labor needs to external labor platforms, (2) HRM functions within digital labor platform firms, and (3) HRM policies and practices for organizations that develop their own spin-off digital labor platform. To foster a more nuanced understanding of work in the gig economy, the authors identify common themes across these contexts, highlight knowledge gaps, offer recommendations for future research, and outline pathways for collecting empirical data on HRM in the gig economy.
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Enhui Yan, Jianlin Wu and Jibao Gu
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how complementors’ marketing capability and technology capability affect their performance. Drawing on social capital theory, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how complementors’ marketing capability and technology capability affect their performance. Drawing on social capital theory, the authors examine platform network centrality as a mediator and platform reputation as a moderator of the relationships between these two capabilities and complementor performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This study collects data by questionnaire from 154 Chinese firms adopting e-commerce platforms. Hierarchical multiple regression is used to test the hypotheses of this study.
Findings
This study finds that complementors’ marketing capability and technology capability positively affect performance by increasing their platform network centrality. Moreover, platform reputation positively moderates the relationship between platform network centrality and complementor performance, and it strengthens the mediating role of platform network centrality.
Originality/value
This paper emphasizes the critical role of marketing capability and technology capability on complementor performance. It explores the improvement path of complementor performance from the perspective of network position, which is a key element for complementors to effectively leverage their capabilities to build competitive advantage.
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Daniel Beverungen, Dennis Kundisch and Nancy Wünderlich
The purpose of this paper is to identify strategic options and challenges that arise when an industrial firm moves from providing smart service toward providing a platform.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify strategic options and challenges that arise when an industrial firm moves from providing smart service toward providing a platform.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual study takes on a multidisciplinary research perspective that integrates concepts, theories and insights from service management and marketing, information systems and platform economics.
Findings
The paper outlines three platform types – smart data platform, smart product platform and matching platform – as strategic options for firms that wish to evolve from smart service providers to platform providers.
Research limitations/implications
Investigating smart service platforms calls for launching interdisciplinary research initiatives. Promising research avenues are outlined to span boundaries that separate different research disciplines today.
Practical implications
Managing a successful transition from providing smart service toward providing a platform requires making significant investments in IT, platform-related capabilities and skills, as well as implement new approaches toward relationship management and brand-building.
Originality/value
The findings described in this paper are valuable to researchers in multiple disciplines seeking to develop and to justify theory related to platforms in industrial scenarios.
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Theories of platform strategy and adoption have been largely derived from studies of their application in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. These…
Abstract
Theories of platform strategy and adoption have been largely derived from studies of their application in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. These platforms vary in openness, with the model of open source software providing the best-known exemplar for open platforms.
This exploratory field study examines the degree to which nine attributes of ICT platforms are applicable to open platforms in biotechnology. Using a combination of interview and secondary data, it identifies three patterns of such biotechnology platforms – IP commons, hackerspaces, and crowdsourced patient registries – and the degree to which these nine attributes apply. It shows the impact of ICT platforms and open source software on open source approaches to biotechnology, and how the latter are affected by the technical, legal, and institutional differences between information technology and biotechnology.
Instead of open source software platforms organized around modular interfaces, complements, ecosystems, and two-sided markets, this study instead suggests a model of open source knowledge platforms which benefits from economies of scale but not indirect network effects. From this, it discusses the generalizability of the ICT-derived models of open source platforms and offers suggestions for future research.
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Michael Maffie and Mark D. Gough
This chapter extends the concept of associational power into the context of online platform work. To do so, this chapter centers on platforms' underlying economic model – the…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter extends the concept of associational power into the context of online platform work. To do so, this chapter centers on platforms' underlying economic model – the multisided market – to better understand how workers may be able to collectively influence their terms and conditions of employment. In illuminating how labor's associational power functions in platform work arrangements, this model helps explain how collective action may function in the “gig economy” and provides a roadmap for future academic inquiry.
Methodology
This chapter develops a model of associational power in the ride-hail industry which can be extended to markets defined by geographically specific platforms, like ride-hail, delivery, domestic work, and home healthcare workers.
Findings
This chapter finds that there is substantial promise for labor unions and other worker associations in the gig economy. Additionally, we find that even well-intended regulations can harm workers' power if the regulators do not grapple with the structure of digital platforms.
Originality/Value
This chapter identifies the foundations of workers' associational power: network effects and multihoming. In contrast to traditional analyses of workers' power, labor's ability to withdraw its effort from a single employer is not the basis of its collective power. Instead, labor's power resides in its ability to withdraw its labor from a competitor and promise its exclusive labor to a single platform. Existing literature has explored the interaction between network effects and market power from the companies' perspective but has yet to extend this analysis to workers' perspective.
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Jie Guo and Harry Bouwman
To understand why the penetration of handset-based mobile payment in most countries is still low has been an important research topic for the last 15 years, and it has been…
Abstract
Purpose
To understand why the penetration of handset-based mobile payment in most countries is still low has been an important research topic for the last 15 years, and it has been analyzed from different perspectives. However, the analysis of a single aspect cannot provide a sophisticated answer to the complicated underlying question. The purpose of this paper is to understand how a relatively successful m-payment ecosystem is created and sustained through the coopetition of various actors.
Design/methodology/approach
To that end, the authors analyze the case of Alipay wallet, the m-payment service provider with the largest market share in China, and focus on understanding the motivations and subsequent actions of the organizations cooperating in the Alipay wallet core ecosystem.
Findings
The results show that actors with heterogeneous and complementary resources can forge sustainable collaboration. Within an ecosystem, although always constrained by resources and capabilities, the actions that the core actors take and the resulting power imbalances are dynamically changing, reflecting actors’ aim of reducing uncertainty.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this case is that it was conducted in a Chinese context, which has specific features that may not apply to other cases. In addition, this study is based on a single case study in a single country, without comparing the results to any other cases or countries. Therefore, some modifications may have to be made when applying the framework and generalizing the results.
Practical implications
With regards to the practical perspective, the Alipay case may serve as an example that other providers follow, taking similar actions to increase the dependency of others and reduce their own dependency on others. It is helpful to take a keystone strategy to create value within the ecosystem and share this value with other participants. Moreover, Alipay acts as the platform provider, in addition to managing value creation within the ecosystem and sharing that value with the other participants. Alipay focuses on the business and strategic needs of the core actors, without threatening their main business, for example, Alipay focuses on micro-payments, which does not pose a direct competition to banks, who mainly rely on macro-payments to generate profit. Micro-payments are often related to high transaction costs for banks. In addition, although it is difficult to define the boundaries of actors in the ecosystem, the core business of every actor is the key competitive or even survival condition. This notion should be taken into consideration by actors whose actions affect the business of other ecosystem partners. For instance, Alipay will not aim to become a bank, as they know that if they do so, they cannot connect any other bank to their platform. In other words, the scope and boundary of the actors are clearly identified so that the core business will not be threatened. Sords, we can learn from Alipay that it pays off to focus on one area, and not to let your competitors challenge you.
Originality/value
The authors proposed the StReS framework for analyzing a business ecosystem by combining resource-based review, resource dependency theories and network analysis for investigating the motivations of the organizations cooperating in the core ecosystem and the actions they have taken to reduce dependency and uncertainty.
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