Abstract
We analyze organizational configurations of digital platforms for manufacturing according to two dimensions: platform functions and platform types. Platform functions refer to the organizational functions of platforms: manufacturing, data sharing, market making, and innovation. Platform types refer to a typology of how platforms are organized: as internal, supply chain, or industry type. We combine those dimensions into a framework and use that to analyze seven cases of digital platforms from the manufacturing sector. Our research answers calls for conceptual clarity and scoping of the digital platform concept and mends relative lack of attention toward digital platforms for the manufacturing sector. We find that digital platforms for manufacturing come in different, partly unexpected, configurations: (1) not all functions are necessarily organizationally part of the platform, (2) not all functions are necessarily organized according to the same platform type, but (3) also not all random configurations of platform types and functions seem to be possible. This complexity highlights the importance of the innovation function for exploring effective configurations of digital platforms for manufacturing.
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Data Availability
Case data from the tables in this paper can be acquired from the corresponding author upon request.
Notes
We thank an anonymous reviewer for bringing this to our attention. A ranking criterion for complexity could be the number of platform types per platform, in which case Skuchain would rank as “high complexity”; 3D Hubs, Nimble, MindSphere, and Sculpteo as “medium complexity”; and IDSA and SCSN as “low complexity.”
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Appendix
Appendix
We first scored each case according to our framework. See the top part of each table behind “platform type.” In addition, to validate the scores of internal, supply chain, or industry platform type, we scored each function according to the sub-dimensions of the platform types as mentioned by Gawer (2014): level of analysis, constitutive agents, technological architecture, interfaces, accessible innovative capabilities, and coordination mechanisms. The tables below show the results. They specifically show that in every case, all the sub-dimensions score in the same platform type as the overall scores. This validates our scores of the cases, and it confirms the validity of the Gawer (2014) framework.
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den Hartigh, E., Stolwijk, C.C., Ortt, J.R. et al. Configurations of digital platforms for manufacturing: An analysis of seven cases according to platform functions and types. Electron Markets 33, 30 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-023-00653-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-023-00653-4