Research programme

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. Personal data is often the consideration consumers give 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 offer 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 action for the design of digital platform ecosystems as well as the regulation of platform markets. Area A.1 focuses on the data exchange relationship between platform-affiliated companies and the platform itself. Area A.2 sheds light on the data pricing decisions of individuals in the platform ecosystem.

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. 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. 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.

Beyond the competitive environment, platform ecosystems and the change they induce have far-reaching implications for socio-economic development and thus also pose new challenges for policy. Research Area C aims to investigate the interaction dynamics emerging in this context in their macroeconomic and regulatory dimensions. 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. 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. 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.