Exploring Digital Multisided Platforms: A Systems Thinking Approach.

This study examines the pathways to growth of digital multisided platforms in an emergent e-commerce industry, and identifies the institutional forces and decision making choices which confront the major actors in the industry. A systems thinking approach has been used in this study for analyzing the evolution of two digital multisided platforms, Alibaba in China and Flipkart in India from 1999 to 2007 respectively till date. The findings show that the national e-commerce regulator in a country has the primary role for shaping the environment of a nascent industry, and the digital multisided platform leader benefits from aligning its vision with that of the regulator, and in focusing on building a sustainable e-commerce ecosystem. Competition in the e-commerce sector is between ecosystems developed by platform leaders. A relational view of competition on the part of the platform leader, rather than a rivalrous view is critical to making the ecosystem viable and competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]