Platform sponsor scope and ecosystem structure: A configurational approach to ecosystem heterogeneity

Abstract

The burgeoning literature on digital platform-based ecosystems has emphasized understanding the influence of platform ecosystem structure and governance strategies on the growth of the ecosystem. However, the platform sponsor should often make these strategic choices simultaneously and continually. This paper adopts a configurational approach to shed light on how the simultaneous decisions of ecosystem structure and governance shape ecosystem growth. We contend that a platform sponsor’s latitude in the governance of platform ecosystems is shaped by its choice of platform sponsor scope. We build a configurational model to inductively identify configurations of ecosystem structure and platform sponsor scope for different types of ecosystems and at different stages of the ecosystem lifecycle. Our results of the fsQCA analysis demonstrate several trade-offs between the elements of structure and scope and show that high-performing ecosystems depict an alignment between the two.