Several companies are facing challenges caused by increased competition and globalization. Thus, many businesses have started to exploit external competences and resources providing a place (generally virtual) in which different group of users are linked. This trend has led to the diffusion of businesses grounded upon multisided platforms (MSP) which have opened the new era of the so-called "platform economy". For example, Uber® is the most important taxi company in the world although it doesn't own any taxi, Facebook® provides thousands of applications and games developed by external developers, Airbnb® is one of the greatest accommodation provider but it doesn't own any estate, Alibaba® is among the most quoted retailers, but it does not have any warehouse This paper deals with the conceptualization of the phenomenon in object. The objective of the paper is threefold: 1) shed light on the main characteristics of MSPs (in particular those one grounded upon digital and internet technologies) and development of a definition in order to define the boundaries of the research; 2) identification of a typology aimed at categorizing the different businesses based on MSPs depending on the kind of interactions enabled and functions performed; 3) development of a framework aimed at describing the configuration variables of a business related to the platform economy.

The rise of platform economy: A framework to describe multisided platforms

ARDOLINO, Marco;SACCANI, Nicola;PERONA, Marco
2016-01-01

Abstract

Several companies are facing challenges caused by increased competition and globalization. Thus, many businesses have started to exploit external competences and resources providing a place (generally virtual) in which different group of users are linked. This trend has led to the diffusion of businesses grounded upon multisided platforms (MSP) which have opened the new era of the so-called "platform economy". For example, Uber® is the most important taxi company in the world although it doesn't own any taxi, Facebook® provides thousands of applications and games developed by external developers, Airbnb® is one of the greatest accommodation provider but it doesn't own any estate, Alibaba® is among the most quoted retailers, but it does not have any warehouse This paper deals with the conceptualization of the phenomenon in object. The objective of the paper is threefold: 1) shed light on the main characteristics of MSPs (in particular those one grounded upon digital and internet technologies) and development of a definition in order to define the boundaries of the research; 2) identification of a typology aimed at categorizing the different businesses based on MSPs depending on the kind of interactions enabled and functions performed; 3) development of a framework aimed at describing the configuration variables of a business related to the platform economy.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11379/487299
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