(A) study on the behavior of complementors in open platform

Abstract

With the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) and Internet of things, the platform strategy has come into the spotlight. A platform serves as a foundation which enables external firms or individuals to generate and innovate their own products or services around the platform, thereby building a platform ecosystem. The ecosystem consists of a core platform and various complements provided by autonomous complementors in the periphery, and the platform leader and complementors collaborate, compete, and coevolve in the ecosystem. Therefore, investigating a platform leader’s strategy and its impacts on complementors’ behavior is the first step to understand the platform ecosystem. Since the competitiveness of the platform ecosystem is determined by the availability and diversity of complements, platform leaders encourage complementors to actively participate and innovate in the platform ecosystem through the platform openness. Opening a platform allows complementors to enter the platform ecosystem without any restrictions. Platform openness, on the one hand, enhances the competitiveness of the platform by allowing complementors to easily enter the ecosystem and innovate freely. On the other hand, the openness induces risks of fierce competition among complementors and reduced coherence across the ecosystem. Therefore, this dissertation empirically investigates the impacts of platform openness on the behaviors of complementors based on mobile platform case. This dissertation consists of three related studies which cover various behaviors of complementors throughout the platform lifecycle including emergence, development, and evolution of the platform. In the first study, continuous intention to participate the platform of complementors is examined, which is a prerequisite for the emergence of the platform. The study found that platform openness facilitates continuous participation of complementors by lowering entry barriers and establishing indirect network effects, while it hinders the participation by inducing coordination costs. The second study compares determinants of knowledge sharing among complementors between open and closed platforms. Knowledge sharing among complementors leads to the growth of ecosystems by enhancing their expertise and creating new ideas. The results indicated that platform openness and coopetition relationship among complementors influence on knowledge sharing intention, and the effects are more salient in the open platform than closed platform. The third study identified factors that influence the adoption by complementors during the evolution of the platform. Open platforms have strengthened their competitiveness by implementing advanced technologies through generational transitions. These evolutionary shifts of the platforms depend on not only the introduction of a new generation by a platform leaders but also the adoption of the generation by complementors. The study highlights that platform-environmental factors driven by the platform openness influence the adoption of new generations by complementors. This dissertation provides comprehensive frameworks of the effects of platform openness on various behaviors of complementors and suggests academic and practical implications to manage open platforms.