CONNECTING THE DOTS OF DIGITAL PLATFORM ECOSYSTEM RESEARCH: CONSTRUCTS, CAUSAL LINKS AND FUTURE RESEARCH

Abstract

Digital platform ecosystems are at the core of several of the world’s most valuable companies and constitute a strongly growing but fragmented research area at the intersection of multiple research streams such as IS, economics, marketing, strategy and technology management. To date, prior research mainly examines individual constructs and their interrelations in an isolated fashion, with no holistic synthesis of the field’s empirical evidence. Addressing this gap, we surveyed 97 empirical studies in top IS and management journals, extracting all variables and causal links between them. Variables were then aggregated to 51 recurring constructs on seven micro (individual entity) and macro (ecosystem and market) levels of analysis and causal links between them were summarised. We contribute a nomological network of DPE research and present three future research avenues: an emergent multi-level perspective, complex dynamics, and studying the heterogeneity of the field to further bridge its isolated insights.