Platform Governance Mechanisms: An Integrated Literature Review And Research Directions

Abstract

Firms increasingly harness outside innovation by opening their core product to third parties and thereby shifting towards platform business models. Such decisions require a critical reconsideration of the firm’s strategy, giving rise to platform governance. Platform governance refers to the mechanisms employed by platform firms to encourage desirable behaviors of complementors and in this way co-create value. We systematically review literature on platform governance with three goals: (1) to integrate research that has been carried out separately in information systems, economics, and management, (2) to categorize existing governance mechanisms, and (3) to outline open research questions. We incorporate publications listed in the FT50 and the Basket of Eight and consider a total set of 71 studies across disciplines. In our study, we offer three main findings. First, we reveal that extant research has considered four distinct categories of governance mechanisms: cooperation, resourcing, control, and market. Second, while some governance mechanisms have gained significant attention, others are comparably emergent. Finally, we identify promising avenues for future research on platform governance.

Keywords: Platform ecosystems, platform governance mechanisms, multi-sided markets, innovation platforms, software ecosystems, literature review