Understanding the boundary decision of digital platform enterprises
Industrial Management & Data Systems
ISSN: 0263-5577
Article publication date: 5 November 2021
Issue publication date: 3 January 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Boundary decision is an important but underexplored theme in digital platform research. The boundary decision of digital platform enterprises (DPEs) differs from traditional organizations because of cross-side network effects (CNEs). This study intends to investigate whether transaction cost economics (TCE) and resource-based view (RBV), as classical organization boundary mechanisms, are still applicable for DPEs.
Design/methodology/approach
To unfold the research problem, this study conducts a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on the samples of 21 platform business units.
Findings
The results show that the classical boundary decision theory still applies in the context of DPEs, but the cross-side network effects will affect boundary decision of DPEs.
Originality/value
This study provides a new framework – integrates TCE, RBV and CNEs – to analyze boundary decision of DPEs. This paper also contributes to research on both organization boundary decision and platform governance.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This research was funded by the Youth Project of National Social Science Foundation of China (21CGL002).
Citation
Lou, S., Wang, J. and Xia, J. (2022), "Understanding the boundary decision of digital platform enterprises", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 122 No. 1, pp. 235-250. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-12-2020-0720
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited