Abstract

This paper presents a knowledge-based view of platform-centered collaborations among multiple organizations. Studies of technological innovation and knowledge creation have broadened beyond their initial emphasis on internal development within an organization or simple exchange of ideas between two parties toward complex collaboration among many organizations at the level of platform-based knowledge ecosystems. Platforms serve as an interface between different groups of producers and consumers in a variety of multi-sided knowledge markets such as smartphone operating systems and video games industries. This study is an exploratory examination to offer theoretical understanding of how the organizational capabilities of platform leaders help expand a network of platform participants. The growth of platform participants is particularly important in the early stage of any platforms as the concept of network effects suggests that the platform with the largest number of participants will capture entire markets. Building upon organization studies and network economics theory on multisided markets, this paper focuses on the role of platform leaders in expanding platform-based collaboration. In our view, platform leaders develop varying levels of three organizational capabilities to discern quality of potential participants, to attract them to actually participate in collaboration, and to maintain long-term exchange relations in the ecosystem. We suggest that the capabilities of platform leaders will have a positive effect on the expansion of platform participants to secure network effects, and also examine several contextual factors that moderate the relationship between a platform leader's capacity and platform expansion.

Keywords

• knowledge-based view of the firm;
• platform-based knowledge ecosystems;
• inter-firm collaboration;
• organizational capabilities