Platform Scope Choices and Ecosystem Heterogeneity: A Configurational Approach

Abstract

Though the burgeoning literature on platform ecosystems has sought to understand different aspects of this emerging phenomenon, the different types of ecosystems are treated in a somewhat homogenous manner. In this paper, we fill this gap and provide an organizing framework to examine the distinctiveness of different types of ecosystem structures based on the platform sponsor scope which then enables heterogeneous treatment of the different forms as they exhibit distinct characteristics. Finally, we explain that an alignment between the platform sponsor scope and the characteristics influences ecosystem performance. We empirically test the causal relations of our alignment argument using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis methodology.