The timing of fostering complementary innovation: exploring the antecedent of industry platform emergence

ABSTRACT

This paper concentrates on exploring the antecedent of industry platform emergence in order to clarify the appropriate timing of opening the platform to successfully architect innovation by external complementors. An industry platform is defined as a core component of a technological system, which facilitates firms in orchestrating complementary innovation leading to the creation of network effects. Literature on industry platforms has mainly paid attention to investigating strategies that firms can implement to foster platform ecosystems. Relatively little research has been done on analysing the suitable timing of increasing platform openness. This incomplete understanding may cause confusion in the use of the industry platform concept, when deciding on the timing of encouraging complementary innovation. To explore this issue, a case study approach was employed to collecting and analysing research data. A total of five case studies were conducted. The case study findings suggest that the appropriate user acceptance of a product platform can be regarded as the antecedent of platform emergence, and this can help firms decide on the timing of opening the platform for the purpose of successfully steering complementary innovation. The research findings have made theoretical contributions to knowledge and have provided firms with practical implications.

KEYWORDS:

• Industry platform emergence
• complementary innovation
• network effects

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Dr. Chung-Lin Tsai is an Assistant Professor at Department of Business Administration, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. He received his PhD in technology management from the University of Cambridge, UK. His research interests are in the areas of platform strategies, strategic management, technology and innovation management.