Researchers across disciplines have increasingly noticed that the theoretical and empirical analysis of digital platforms and their ecosystems requires a systemic perspective – one that also considers the interfaces and interactions of the ecosystem with its economic and social environment. Accordingly, as outlined in the figure below, the research programme of DPE is conceived in terms of three complementary research areas arranged around the core subject of the digital platform ecosystem:
DPE is unique in its thematic and interdisciplinary focus and its emphasis on the promotion and nurturing of emerging academics. The principal investigators involved in the RTG are leading researchers in their respective fields, strongly committed to cutting-edge science that makes internationally significant scholarly contributions. Their research questions and perspectives are highly complementary. At the same time, they and the research fields they represent share epistemological and methodological approaches and scientific conventions. For example, in all disciplines represented in the RTG DPE, researchers apply methodologies such as field and laboratory experiments, microeconometric approaches, survey- and interview-based studies and automated text analysis. This reservoir of shared, congruent practices and approaches enables the DPE members to develop a common mindset and to collaborate effectively and efficiently across disciplines.
Research Area A "Data exchange in platform ecosystems" examines the data exchange processes and structures within a given platform ecosystem. In addition to the platform, this ecosystem includes the affiliated companies and the companies mediated via the platform as well as the individual users. Central research topics are the incentives, procedures and behavioural patterns of the various actors in the platform ecosystem with regard to the exchange of (personal) data with the platform and the resulting strategic and regulatory implications. These topics are addressed primarily from the perspectives of information systems and marketing science.
Research Area A.1 focuses on the data exchange relationship between platform-affiliated companies and the platform itself. Research Area A.2 sheds light on the data pricing decisions of individuals in the platform ecosystem.
A decisive – possibly the most significant – competitive and innovation factor in digital platform ecosystems is data. This applies in particular to personal data, which can be used to design personalised product and service offerings, and targeted advertising. Consumers often give their personal data in exchange for "free" access to platforms, and this data can be traded on platforms, for example on so-called personal data markets and data hubs. Platforms also strive to acquire as much data as possible from affiliated providers: on the one hand, to mediate even better between consumers and providers and thus increase the overall attractiveness and efficiency for all players. On the other hand, in order to create an attractive offer on the platform for their own benefit, which in turn can mean a structural disadvantage for the affiliated providers.
The exchange of data in the platform ecosystem requires a variety of technical access mechanisms, which in turn have an impact on complex economic interdependencies and trade-offs, many of which have hardly been explored so far. The core objective of this research area is to identify and analyse these cause–effect relationships and trade-offs and to develop a sound understanding of data exchange behaviour and the related interaction of actors in the platform ecosystem; also in order to be able to provide recommendations for the design of digital platform ecosystems as well as the regulation of platform markets.
Research Area B "Innovation, transformation and organisation in the platform ecosystem" focuses on the implications of the platform ecosystem for organisation and management, particularly as it relates to the companies that operate and emerge within the sphere of influence of the platform ecosystem and the knowledge-intensive collaboration and innovation processes that unfold within the platform ecosystem. From a theoretical perspective, these projects are primarily anchored in organisational and innovation research, strategic management and entrepreneurship.
Research Area B.1 analyses the specific challenges for established organisations in adapting to digital platform-based forms of value creation. On the one hand, the special role of top leaders for this adaptation process is considered. Another focus is on the specific challenges for non-typical organisations such as aid organisations and meta-organisations.
Research Area B.2 directs attention to the characteristic of platforms as places of innovation and entrepreneurship and includes the diversity of actors. On the one hand, novel processes and structures of knowledge-intensive collaboration within the often fluid and informal organisational forms emerging on platform are examined. On the other hand, the idiosyncratic challenges of young companies in platform ecosystems are illuminated.
Platform ecosystems create a competitive gravitational field that has enormous dynamism and innovative power but also exerts high pressure to transform and adapt. Established "pipeline" companies interact with powerful platforms, young companies (often set up as platforms themselves) and communities of individually acting players, including hobbyists. In this space of digital value creation, traditional boundaries and categories of organisations are blurring; established management paradigms are being challenged; and traditional key competencies are becoming less important. As a result, many established organisations – from hotels to development aid organisations – need to fundamentally reinvent themselves and implement profound structural reconfigurations in order to operate successfully in the platform economy. Moreover, novel, fluid forms of knowledge-intensive collaboration and innovation as well as platform-specific forms of (digital) entrepreneurship are emerging in platform ecosystems and their periphery. These are characterised by a tension between entrepreneurial freedom and dependence on powerful platforms, which affects the emergent social and organisational systems and thus also the efficiency and success of innovations in the platform ecosystem. Research Area B examines these phenomena from two complementary and interdependent perspectives.
Research Area C "Socio-economic and regulatory dimensions of digital platform ecosystems" broadens the focus to the societal and socio-economic environment of digital platform ecosystems. The participating researchers approach these questions primarily from the perspectives of public economics, development economics and communication studies.
Research Area C.1 focuses on the potential impact of platform-based value creation models in cities on socio-economic variables such as health, transport and housing.
Research Area C.2 takes a look at the opportunities and risks of digital platform ecosystems in developing countries, for which it is hoped that platform ecosystems will have particularly positive effects.
Research Area C.3 examines the discourse and policy processes that accompany and influence the emergence and establishment of platform ecosystems. This is relevant not only because the effects of platform-based value creation require fundamental research but also because the discursive-institutional negotiation of possible regulatory measures is of particular theoretical importance for understanding platform ecosystems and also follows its own patterns, influenced in particular by new media.
The vantage point of the research in this area is the observation that platform ecosystems have a profound impact on higher-level societal structures and processes – also in an international context – but at the same time their development is also decisively influenced by developments in society. Research topics in this area include the impact of sharing platforms on health, transport and housing in urban areas, socio-economic opportunities and risks of platforms in developing countries, as well as the political communication structures around the regulation of platforms against the backdrop of the interests of various stakeholder interests.
