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An increasing number of businesses have adopted a platform business model. Platform companies such as Airbnb, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Salesforce and Uber are amongst the world's most valuable companies and have revolutionized their respective industries. But what are platforms? Is there a unique definition? How do they innovate, and what is their place in the innovation literature? This editorial article considers those questions. First, it provides an overview of platform definitions, their evolution, and increasing relevance in today's economy. Then, it presents and contextualizes the six papers of this special section that lie at the intersection of platforms and innovation literature streams. In doing so, a framework contextualizing the emerging concept of 'Platform‐Driven Innovation' is proposed. It shows how platforms may have very different roles in the innovation processes acting as Simplifiers, Catalyst or Enablers. Finally, this paper contains some suggestions on how future research may explore the intersection between innovation and platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The lightning spark of thought generated in the solitary mind awakens its likeness in another mind." The Special Issue editors and the authors in the Special Issue tackle this call for action by complementing macro-level insights with an exploration of the microfoundations of collaborative innovation. The authors build on ethnographic field studies at six design consultancies representing three design fields (architecture, industrial design and interaction design) in the Northwestern USA. [Extracted from the article]

The design‐driven innovation literature focuses on meanings that people give to products and services. This paper investigates how new meanings can be designed and proposed to society rather than to individuals in the particular context of smart mobility. Smart mobility is characterized by a wide range of digital technologies that aim to make all mobility services within a city or territory more accessible and easy to use for citizens. At the same time, to effectively create value, the opportunities digital technologies offer must meet the needs of emerging lifestyles. In modern life, people manifest their interest in the semantic dimension by embracing solutions that are personally constructive and aligned with their cultural values. From an empirical point of view, this paper relies on two case studies that illustrate radical innovation of meanings in the smart mobility domain. Both case studies suggest a multi‐level perspective: on the one hand, they address landscape pressure and the need for more sustainable solutions for future mobility; on the other hand, they propose a new understanding of transport and travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the psychological mechanism by which digital workers translate self‐rated creativity into other‐rated creativity (novelty and usefulness). Specifically, we explore digital workers' creative self‐efficacy as an explanatory mechanism while we investigate psychological entitlement as a boundary condition. We test our research model on a sample of digital platform workers (245 working professionals on Amazon Mechanical Turk) and 167 digital experiment participants. The results of both studies converge in supporting the moderated‐mediation model leading up to novelty as a criterion of creativity, but not usefulness. Implications for the study of creativity and digital work are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are the digital platforms that we know here to stay? Both empirical insights and theoretical works suggest digital platform stability. Digital platforms such as Airbnb, Netflix and Taobao have experienced tremendous success, and the theoretical works on modularity and multisided markets depict competitive platform landscapes as controlled by a hegemonic platform leader. However, platform history chronicles multiple cases of leadership shifts in platform ecosystems. In this paper, we coin these situations 'platform overthrows' and uncover the relevant strategies for both a challenger to conduct a platform overthrow and for a platform leader to resist it. To do so, we conducted an inductive protocol to reinterpret 27 already published cases of platform overthrow attempts. Our results suggest that, during a platform overthrow attempt, both players articulate functional expansion and technical genericity. Accordingly, we formulate propositions that account for the strategies at play during a platform overthrow attempt. We discuss these results regarding the digital platform literature on competition and conclude that the study of platform overthrow can yield useful insights on the future of digital platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's business environment, digitalization plays a key role in establishing competitive advantage and developing new business models. However, little is known about business model innovation (BMI) processes and practices of small and medium‐sized enterprise (SMEs) in their digital venturing. Thus, the aim of this paper is to address this research gap by investigating the process activities of SMEs in effectively building new business models through digitalization. Through a case study of 18 SMEs, document studies and 36 interviews, we explore the BMI processes during the case companies' digital transformation. The research results identify four critical BMI process activities: (1) assessing the environment in search of new opportunities, (2) conveying a sense of urgency, (3) exploring and testing new opportunities through experimentation and (4) handling decision‐making with a combination of intuition and data. Finally, our study reveals managerial implications related to data‐driven decision‐making during BMI, constituting four managerial dilemmas: (1) prognosis and scenario‐driven search myopia, (2) timing and sustainability, (3) radical shift from traditional experimentation to data‐based methods and (4) using intuition versus data‐driven decision‐making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms have been reshaping the structure of whole industries. Whereas previous developments mainly have taken place within the business-to-consumer (B2C) or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) market, the business-to-business (B2B) market is at the edge of the so-called platform economy. Leading companies step out of their core business and develop their own platforms. The paper at hand presents a methodology to master the challenges of developing digital platforms by using patterns, which represent proven principles of already established platforms. The methodology is based on a holistic pattern catalogue that can be used independently from the task at hand. We show in detail how we derived a catalogue with 37 platform patterns and how the catalogue can be applied to the development of digital platforms. The corresponding methodology contains three phases. Within the first phase, a specific platform idea is being developed. The second phase addresses the collaboration of an abstract platform concept. Finally, a specific digital platform concept is worked out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is certainly a lot of discussion about digital technologies, their transformative nature, and their potentially disruptive impact on business and society. The number of publications on digital technologies and their impact on business and management have risen dramatically. This paper's main objective is to draw attention to practical and research-related views on what we know and what we still need to learn about business and management in the digital era. We do so by combining the insights obtained from interviews with senior managers in charge of their firm's digital transformation activities in 2017 with the results of a systematic literature review covering a decade of practice-oriented, academic literature on the impact of digital technologies. We identify the challenges that firms face at the beginning of their digital transformation efforts and summarize the managerial guidance offered by 242 publications over the years, 133 of which have been published since 2017. Based on the analysis conducted, we discuss the emerging solutions for a number of the key challenges identified in 2017, flag the remaining ones, and identify new themes that require attention. This leads us to propose an agenda for future, practice-oriented research on digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Open Innovation paradigm has been increasingly considered as a relevant approach to innovation. Among the different sources, end users are particularly meaningful. Scholars have highlighted several methods and strategies to involve them in the innovation process by asking, observing, and giving them the chance to actually co‐create. Digital technologies are expanding the span of opportunities in this direction, gathering a huge amount and variety of data, while the end user enjoys a digital product; these data can be called “user generated big data” (UGBD). The aim of this research is to understand whether UGBD can contribute in user innovation and to highlight the enabled strategies to create value through them. Leveraging on a multiple case study (Twitter, Spotify, Strava, and Deliveroo), the paper first classifies UGBD among the methods to foster user centered innovation, and then it defines two strategies to create value relying on UGBD. First, companies can leverage on a “using data” strategy—addressing both the end user or other player in the ecosystem—fostering service innovation through an inbound approach. Second, a “selling data” strategy can be pursued, addressing new clients and fostering business model innovation, enlarging the company's value chain in an outbound perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature suggests that increasing investments in information and communication technologies (ICTs), knowledge exchange and sharing help SMEs tackle the current global and dynamic environment. Given that much of the useful knowledge resides outside the enterprises' boundaries, these technological tools foster the gathering of big data and information. Despite these premises, few studies have considered the role of ICTs and big data in intra- and inter-organizational ties and the consequent effects on enterprises' innovation performance. The paper investigates whether ICTs oriented to intra-organizational (in-house research and development [R&D]) and inter-organizational (open innovation) processes improve SMEs' innovation performance. Therefore, via structural equation modelling (SEM), the study analyses a sample of 239 knowledge-intensive SMEs located in Italy. The noteworthy results are that ICTs oriented to intra- and inter-organizational innovation processes improve both these processes in generating new products and/or services. On this basis, managerial and academic implications are provided, along with avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What's mine is yours. An increasing number of people are participating in sharing and exchanging information, knowledge, data and goods. As research addressing the so-called 'sharing economy' is still in its infancy, this article aims to shed light on it. To do this, a qualitative research approach comprising guided interviews with 14 companies from Germany, Austria and Switzerland provides detailed insights into different aspects of the sharing economy phenomenon. Our results make a direct contribution to sharing economy research, especially regarding the new business models of start-ups. Here, we find a clear difference between the relevance of economic and social orientation. The latter appears to be in higher demand among customers than entrepreneurs. The increasingly digitalized environment has led to a changed living situation characterized by urbanity, openness to new solutions, changed working situations and new mindsets. All of these aspects drive the sharing economy. The results of this paper are summarized in a framework highlighting the requirements, drivers and goals of the sharing economy. Considering the limited research in this field, the developed framework is a strong basis for discussion, critique and/or support of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East‐Asian practitioners aspiring to engage in the design thinking (DT) practice—a human‐centred approach to innovation developed and primarily used in Western cultures—may experience a "cultural clash" or "cultural misfit" that may inhibit the acceptance of DT logic. To tap into this still underexplored terrain, this qualitative study explores the enablers and challenges of effective DT practice in achieving service innovation in Hong Kong organizations. Based on a dozen in‐depth interviews, we identified numerous sociocultural and institutional enablers and challenges, which we interpreted based on the postulates of structuration theory proposed by Giddens. Our conceptualization and empirical investigation of DT through a practice lens offers a new perspective when studying the contextual antecedents of DT. Specifically, the findings show that the choice to engage in DT practice is shaped by cultural specifics in the plurality of influences that move beyond the Western perspective and previous DT studies. From a practical point of view, our research informs policymakers and managers about the importance of being culturally sensitive and humanizing digital transformation when organizing service innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating knowledge is crucial for open innovation, and digital technologies can play a central role because they support knowledge sharing. In open innovation projects, in particular, little is known about the role of technology. Here, the individual behaviour of users is taken into account concerning the extent to which knowledge is shared. Therefore, persuasive technologies offer the potential to foster sharing. In particular, to facilitate the construction of future digital technologies, this study applies a design science research approach to create and analyse artefacts as a research contribution and develop design principles as a step towards a nascent design theory. We present insights from the design and application of three artefacts in different stages of open innovation processes. Results show that digital technologies can be used for various purposes: to build a common understanding, support design phases, communicate ideas and simplify the application of the technology for the user. Our research provides insights into the role of digital technologies for knowledge sharing in open innovation projects, and four design principles are found to facilitate the construction of future persuasive digital technologies for open innovation projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the mixed methods of qualitative research and agent‐based simulation, this study examines: (a) how end‐users use digital platforms to become customer–entrepreneurs undertaking commercial activities on platforms; and (b) how platform providers can convert this customer entrepreneurship into a revenue stream. Considering that end‐users have traditionally been defined as passive and uncharged actors in platform business models, an in‐depth understanding of their commercial activities and the viable revenue model to monetize this emerging customer practice is warranted. Our qualitative study reveals that customer–entrepreneurs make substantial use of platform offerings to advertise their products; communicate with end‐consumers; and accept payments. These commercial activities are largely exercised for free on platforms, even though they could otherwise serve as a source of revenue. On this point, our simulation results identify two pricing models achieving the generation of nearly identical revenues over time. First, platform providers may charge both advertising and transaction fees, which maximize the survival of professional customer–entrepreneurs. Second, platform businesses may levy advertising fees only, which maximizes the survival of informal customer–entrepreneurs operating on a micro‐scale and part‐time basis. This study offers theoretical, methodological, and managerial implications for platform studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors consider how a change in product form impacts the adoption decision for an innovative product based on digital technology. Examples of changes in product form often arise in products that feature indirect network externalities, such as MP3 players, PDAs and e-readers. Existing research suggests that, for innovations with indirect network externalities, the consumer's hardware adoption decision is influenced by the availability of complementary products. However, these studies of complementary products tend to focus on products that exist only as complementary products, such as DVDs, CDs, and video games. This research focuses on the case of an innovative hardware product that uses digital complementary products that compete with standalone versions of the same products. The authors argue that high levels of experience with a standalone product that competes with an innovative hardware/software bundle should increase the consumer's appreciation of (1) the utilitarian benefits of the hardware/software bundle and (2) the hedonic benefits of the standalone product, some of which may not be transferable to the electronic hardware. An analysis of data collected from 549 potential adopters of e-readers in Japan support these hypotheses. The findings have important implications for the design and marketing of digital innovations that involve a change in product form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]