Orchestrating a Platform Ecosystem. The Effects of Platform Control on Platform Performance

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Information Management, grade: 1,3, University of Mannheim, language: English, abstract: This paper examines the effects of control mechanisms on a platform. First, the theoretical background of important terms in this field is given to gain a common understanding, which is necessary for classification as well as results. In this thesis, platforms are defined as products and services, which bring together user groups and enable transactions between the groups by providing infrastructure to do so. Second, literature dealing with this field of study is processed to provide a comprehensive and transparent overview about current research, including the platform type, dependent variables, and findings.

Input, output, process, clan, self-control, as well as open and closed platforms, rules & values and boundary resources are identified as the most relevant control mechanisms. Thereby the first research question what types of control mechanisms are discussed in literature, is answered. The findings then are analyzed for these different types of control to address the remaining research questions how control mechanisms effect platforms and when this is useful. It can be pointed out that most mechanisms go along with advantages and disadvantages, as theory suggests. Thus, decision makers have to be clear about the goal they want to achieve when changing platform governance or control to use these effects for their advantage. If a platform aims at optimizing e.g. the degree of openness, this depends on the question: what is optimal for the platform?

As ecosystems typically face the trade-off between quality (e.g. apps) and quantity (e.g. number of users), platform owners have to strategically position the platform somewhere along this continuum. The finding that some control mechanisms are superior to others for achieving certain goals, however, can directly be beneficial to managers. Also, the methods applied by the studies are analyzed, coming to the conclusion that case studies represent the predominant method in this field. Lastly, the results are discussed, contributions and limitations of this work are considered. Also, shortcomings and research gaps in this field are highlighted and future research areas are exemplified. Especially the conduction of an event study and adopting a more strategic approach are intriguing for a master thesis to fully cover the implications of managers' decision regarding platform ecosystems.