Intelligent manufacturing and green innovation: Quasi-natural evidence from China

Intelligent manufacturing is an important driving force for improving quality and efficiency and promoting green innovation. Based on the data of Chinese listed companies and taking the Chinese intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper constructs a difference-in-differences (DID) model to explore the effect and mechanism of intelligent manufacturing on enterprise green innovation. The results show that intelligent manufacturing has significantly promoted green innovation in China, and this effect is still valid after considering various robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis shows that in areas with a good green development foundation and poor information infrastructure, the impact is more obvious. In non-state-owned enterprises and mature enterprises, the impact is more obvious. Mechanism analysis indicates that intelligent manufacturing enhances green innovation through cost management effects, efficiency improvement effects, and employment structure optimization effects. The conclusions provide clear policy implications for developing countries to promote intelligent manufacturing practices and green high-quality development.

Impact of digital infrastructure construction on the migrants' utilization of basic public health services in China

BACKGROUND

Global digitalization significantly impacts public health by improving healthcare access for marginalized populations. In China, socioeconomic disparities and the Hukou system create significant barriers for the migrant population to access basic public health services (BPHS). This study aimed to assess how digital infrastructure construction (DIC) affects BPHS utilization among China's migrant populations, filling a gap in the literature regarding the relationship between digital advancements and health service accessibility.

METHODS

This research used micro-level data from the 2018 China Migrants Dynamic Survey and incorporated variables aligned with the Broadband China policy to employ a comprehensive empirical strategy. It included baseline regressions, robustness checks through propensity score matching and machine learning techniques, and heterogeneity analysis to explore the differential impacts of DIC based on gender, age, education level, and Hukou status.

RESULTS

The findings revealed that DIC significantly enhances the likelihood of migrants establishing health records and registering with family doctors, demonstrating quantifiable improvements in health service utilization. Heterogeneity analysis further indicated that the beneficial impacts of DIC were more pronounced among female migrants, those with higher education levels, younger populations, and urban Hukou holders.

CONCLUSIONS

DIC plays a crucial role in bridging the accessibility gap to BPHS for migrant populations in China, contributing to narrowing health disparities and advancing social equity. These results emphasize the significance of digital infrastructure in public health strategies and offer valuable insights for policymakers, healthcare providers, and researchers. Future research should prioritize longitudinal studies on the sustained effects of DIC and tailor digital health initiatives to meet the unique needs of migrant populations, promoting inclusive health policy planning and implementation.

Competition of multiplatform firms: Implications for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) technology trend is transforming business and society. This creates a need to understand strategic behavior in the consumer IoT, where firms tend to offer multiple platform devices, and new generations of devices are introduced frequently. We propose a novel analytical model that formalizes the concept of a multiplatform firm that offers a system of platforms, such as a smartphone, and a new platform device, such as a smartwatch, and orchestrates a multiplatform ecosystem. The analysis shows how a platform design decision, like offering a new standalone device, affects consumer choices and market outcomes. We identify two classes of new devices that matter, and show when a new platform device may disrupt the smartphone market. Moreover, we characterize conditions under which it is profitable for a vendor to make its new platform device look and feel more like its smartphone. Overall, we provide insights into how multiplatform firms differ from platform firms. We identify future research opportunities on the economics of consumer IoT and multiplatform ecosystems.

Multi-group symbiotic evolutionary mechanisms of a digital innovation ecosystem: Numerical simulation and case study

In the digital innovation ecosystem, the symbiosis mode formed between ecosystem members not only relates to their survival and development but also affects the ecosystem's symbiosis evolution mechanism. Based on symbiosis theory, this study first explores the evolutionary equilibrium strategy and its stability for three types of populations-core enterprises, digital platforms, and university research institutes-and then uses numerical simulation and a case study to explore the symbiotic evolution mechanism of the digital innovation ecosystem. The results show that: First, the digital innovation ecosystem is a complex adaptive system in which the three types of populations form different symbiotic relationships under different symbiotic modes and conduct symbiotic activities, such as value co-creation, to characterize the unique symbiotic evolutionary structure. Second, in this ecosystem, the symbiotic relationship formed by the combined values of different symbiotic coefficients between populations determines the outcome of symbiotic evolution. Third, the ideal direction of the evolution of the digital innovation ecosystem is a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship. Thus, the symbiotic relationship between populations should be transformed into a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships as much as possible. This study makes theoretical contributions by shedding light on the symbiotic evolution mechanism of the digital innovation ecosystem. It also offers countermeasures for the digital innovation cooperation of various stakeholders in China's digital innovation ecosystem.

Entrepreneurial bricolage and entrepreneurial performance: The role of business model innovation and market orientation

Newly established enterprises in China face significant challenges and opportunities, with persistently high mortality rates. Navigating market challenges and establishing sustainable competitive advantages are pressing issues for contemporary businesses. This study delves into the bridging role of business model innovation between entrepreneurial bricolage and entrepreneurial performance, with market orientation influencing the relationship boundaries. We examined 288 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises, investigating the relationships among entrepreneurial bricolage, business model innovation, market orientation, and entrepreneurial performance. Empirical results indicate: (1) Entrepreneurial bricolage positively influences business model innovation, and business model innovation positively impacts entrepreneurial performance. (2) Business model innovation plays a fully mediating positive role between entrepreneurial bricolage and entrepreneurial performance. (3) Market orientation positively moderates the impact of entrepreneurial bricolage on business model innovation and entrepreneurial performance, and it also positively moderates the impact of business model innovation on entrepreneurial performance. (4) Market orientation positively moderates the impact of entrepreneurial bricolage, mediated by business model innovation, on entrepreneurial performance. The study results contribute to a more effective understanding of the mechanisms through which entrepreneurial bricolage and business model innovation influence entrepreneurial performance, as well as how market orientation moderates their relationships and how enterprises sustain competitive advantages.

A Sustainable Model for Healthcare Systems: The Innovative Approach of ESG and Digital Transformation

In recent years, the globe has faced a series of topics of growing concern, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the international financial crisis, rising socio-economic inequalities, the negative outcomes of greenhouse gas emissions, which resulted in climate change, and many others. Organizations worldwide have confronted these new challenges of sustainable finance by incorporating environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors and digital transformation (DT) in their innovation business strategies. The healthcare sector represents a large share of the global economy (about 10% of global economic output), employs a large number of workers, and needs to rely more on an open innovation model where interested parties, especially patients, are going to have a say in their own well-being. Thus, it is imperative that healthcare providers be efficient, effective, resilient, and sustainable in the face of significant challenges and risks. At the same time, they must offer sustainable development goals and digital transformation to healthcare users through limited governmental resources. This study investigates the role, importance, and correlation of ESG factors and digital transformation to the sustainable finance of healthcare systems through an innovative model. The main purpose of the paper is to present the already implemented ESG and DT factors in the healthcare sector and to propose a mutual and combined implementation strategy based on common evaluation tools, methods, and actions. A set of proposed actions and strategies are presented for the sustainability and resilience of the healthcare sector.

Blockchain Technology Application Challenges in Renewable Energy Supply Chain Management

With the advent of new technologies and globalization of business, supply chains have turned into indispensable tools for gaining competitive advantage. The application of new technologies like blockchain can benefit sustainable energy supply chains by improving chain and logistics operations in the areas of trust, transparency and accountability, cooperation, information sharing, financial exchanges, and supply chain integration. However, the efforts to adopt such technologies in supply chains tend to face many challenges and challenges, which can seriously threaten their success. Therefore, it is crucial to carefully examine the challenges to blockchain technology application. This research focuses on identifying the criteria and challenges to the application of blockchain in renewable energy supply chains and also ranks the identified challenges in terms of their capacity to disrupt the process. The applicability of the suggested structure is examined in a case study of the renewable energy supply chain of Iran. In this study, the challenges are evaluated and ranked by the hybrid developed methods by the integration of the concept of gray numbers into the gray stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA-Gray) and the gray evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS-Gray). Another group of hybrid methods including the gray weighted sum method (WSM-Gray), the gray complex proportional assessment (COPRAS-Gray), and the gray technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS-Gray) is used to validate the results. The rankings obtained from all of these techniques show high degree of correlation. Among the identified challenges, "high investment cost" is found to be the most important challenge to the application of blockchain in sustainable energy supply chains.

Digitalization of relational space in the service triangle: The case study of retail banking

INTRODUCTION

The article aims to shed light on the process of shaping the relational space of work in the service triangle through the progressive digitalization of work in retail banking industry. It addresses the following research question: how do technological shifts affect the relationships and interactions (a) between employees and supervisors, and (b) between employees and customers? Through a close examination of the redesign of the interpersonal relationships from the subjective viewpoint of front-line workers across these two levels, the paper contributes to advancing the understanding of the impact of technologies on surveillance practices, work identity and professional ethics in a key working sector with regard to digitalization and changes in professional requirements.

METHODS

The question is addressed through a qualitative case study of retail banking in Italy. In the (retail) banking sector, the redesign of the relations between supply and demand for services is more sensitive to the changes afforded by digitalization and learning algorithms. The study was conducted with the involvement of workers and trade unionists, with whom we embarked on a constant work of re-articulation through data collection, analysis, and conceptualization. We collected a multiplicity of data for triangulation: interviews, focus groups, documents, and ethnographic notes.

RESULTS

Data analysis shows how work processes and interpersonal relationships start to be redesigned across the two levels. At (a) level, two main aspects are found: the measurement of individual performance within the logic of quantification, which reduces employees to a set of measured dimensions, pushing workers into conditions of stress and competition; new surveillance practices and forms of organizational control enabled by technologies and learning algorithms. At (b) level, from being an expert with specific knowledge in the financial sector the bank employee turns into a kind of seller of any product that the algorithm decides to sell, thus ignoring the value of situated experience held by embedded, embodied social actors. Moreover, algorithms enter jurisdictional spaces traditionally controlled by knowledge workers and produce unknown outcomes concerning to whom to sell which products that cannot be clearly understood by workers.

DISCUSSION

Technology contributes to engendering complex identity constructions to maintain, protect, and revise professional identity.

Extended Generativity Theory on Digital Platforms

The assumption that generativity engenders unbounded growth has acquired an almost taken-for-granted position in information systems and management literature. Against this premise, we examine the relationship between generativity and user base growth in the context of a digital platform. To do this, we synthesize the literature on generativity into two views, social interaction (expansion of ecosystem boundaries) and product view (expansion of product boundaries), that jointly and individually relate to user base growth. Both views help us explain how opening a platform relates to the emergence and resolution of conflicting expectations in a platform ecosystem that result in new functions and expanded use. We adopt a panel vector autoregressive approach combining data from six large transaction platforms that engaged with open-source developer communities. We found that the dominant narrative of generativity engendering growth, although generally supported by our analysis, obscures the fact that the inverse is also true; that is, growth can lead to expansion of product boundaries (inverse generativity) and that generativity can be bounded; that is, growth can stabilize ecosystem boundaries (bounded generativity). Against this background, we propose an extended generativity theory that presents generativity and growth in an integrative view and raises awareness about the limitations of the “unbounded growth” claim. We conclude that there is value in separating the two views of generativity conceptually and analytically, along with their relationship to user base growth, and we call for research on the pathways through which generativity produces growth.

History: Ola Henfridsson, Senior Editor; Robert Wayne Gregory, Associate Editor.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.1209 .

Unfolding sustainable auditing ecosystem formation path through digitalization transformation: How digital intelligence of accountant fosters the digitalization capabilities

This research aims at indulging a consistent image of how Digitalization Capabilities (DC) demonstrates an impact on Sustainable Auditing Ecosystem (SAE) within public sector organizations (PSOs) in developing countries, especial in an emerging market, and gives insights regarding to divergent impacts of the interconnection between DC and SAE moderated by different levels of Accountants' Digital Intelligence (ADI). The state-of-the-art structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to statistically analyze the survey data collected from self-administered questionnaire distributed to a convenient sample of 323 respondents. Additionally, multi-group analysis (MGA) was implemented to explore the heterogeneity of data and examined substance of the difference in the parameters caused by the moderating variable. The obtained results advocated that it was paramount for PSOs to increase DC for SAE formulation. The MGA findings highlighted a statistically significant difference in the impacts of DC on SAE between various levels of ADI. The insights acquired from final model emerged as a foundation which might buttress policymakers and PSOs' practitioners in initiatives development pertaining to digitalization for SAE formulation.

Examining how and when digital platform capabilities drive technological innovation: a strategic information perspective

Purpose

This study aims to examine how and when digital platform capabilities drive technological innovation from a strategic information perspective, regarding information flow and information quality as mediators and business intelligence analytics as a moderator.

Design/methodology/approach

This study engaged corporate executives in surveys and obtained 182 firm data and then tested the hypotheses using linear regression models and the robustness using the structural equation model.

Findings

Digital platform capabilities drive corporate technological innovation through access to strategic information, i.e. strategic information mediates between digital platform capabilities and technological innovation. Business intelligence analytics increases the influence of strategic information on technological innovation.

Practical implications

This study underlines the importance for companies to construct digital platform capabilities to access strategic information to achieve technological innovation and the role of business intelligence analytics in processing strategic information.

Originality/value

This study finds a new perspective, strategic information, to explain the mechanisms by which digital platform capabilities drive firms’ technological innovation. In addition, the robustness of the resource-based view in understanding digital platform capabilities is stressed.

Information sharing through digitalisation in decentralised supply chains

This study investigates the impact of private information on decision making process and how emerging technologies can facilitate information sharing and reduce misinformation in decentralised settings. Focusing on business environments, we examine if information sharing between distinct partners can be a mutually beneficial option. In principle, information affects the preferences and the actions of decision makers and usually contributes to inefficiencies for the entire system. A supply chain with two rational firms is considered; the firms have conflicting objectives and possess information that cannot be verified. Real-time communication through a cloud platform is allowed, before the firms finalise their strategies. During the communication phase, both firms are free to report whatever information optimises their individual objectives, even fake. Misinformation seems a plausible option, especially in competitive environments, since the firms may take advantages from such behaviour. We demonstrate that sharing the actual information can be beneficial for both, under the implementation of an appropriate mechanism that considers the welfare of the entire chain. Despite the individualistic behaviour of independent decision makers, it is doable to eliminate entirely information asymmetry and misinformation. This happens by including sufficient incentives on a mechanism that induce firms to reveal their information, because it is in their self-interest to do so. The value of information and the expected benefits of the voluntary information sharing are calculated, indicating the potential improvement.

Don’t Look Back? Backward Compatibility in the Video Gaming Industry

Backward compatibility is a governance strategy that can be adopted by platform owners to build indirect network effects and encourage owners of older compatible software to update to newer hardware models. Previous research shows backward compatibility has a positive effect on hardware sales. However, there is limited evidence concerning the other associated costs and benefits. In particular, there is a lack of evidence on the effect of backward compatibility on software sales despite its importance in understanding the full range of possible network and sales displacement effects associated with the strategy. Using weekly software-level sales data from the U.S. video gaming industry, we find that backward-compatible hardware associates with increased sales of software released for the previous hardware generation. However, we find that the introduction of backward compatibility may not increase the sales of new hardware if the feature is not available immediately at launch. Further, we show that the increased sales of software for the old hardware platform may cannibalize software sales for the new platform. Overall, our results suggest that backward compatibility is time-sensitive and involves several important trade-offs. We, therefore, conclude that the use of backward compatibility needs to be carefully considered by platform owners prior to implementation.

Effect of perceived risks, perceived benefits and regulatory events on users’ supervision intention towards e-hailing platforms: A mixed method

Research on platform governance has gained extensive scholarly interest. However, studies on user participation intention towards platform supervision remain underexplored. In this study, a mixed method approach, including qualitative and quantitative methods, is used to explore the factors influencing the supervision intention of e-hailing users. A preliminary interview study is conducted to determine what factors impact users’ supervision intention, and an SEM model is tested using 359 survey data to examine how perceived government regulation, perceived risks/benefits and regulatory events impact supervision intention. Results indicate that perceived government regulation reduces perceived risks and increases the perceived benefits from participation into supervision, perceived risks weakened users’ supervision intention, whereas perceived benefits stimulated it. Perceived risks and perceived benefits positively mediated the relationship between perceived government regulation and users’ supervision intention. Regulatory events have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between e-hailing users’ perceived risks (benefits) and supervision intention.

Coordinating multi-level collective action: how intermediaries and digital governance can help supply chains tackle grand challenges

Purpose

Driven by increasing concerns for sustainable development and digitalization, intermediaries have emerged as relevant actors who can help supply chains tackle grand societal challenges. They can also trigger significant changes in structure, shape and governance models of supply chains. The goal of this research is to advance the understanding of supply chain intermediation and digital governance as coordinating mechanisms for enabling multi-level collective action to address the world's grand challenges.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual research paper that uses a vignette approach, where real examples are described to help question and expand theoretical insights and provide a basis for future research. The examples are drawn from past and ongoing extensive primary and secondary data collection efforts in diverse types of supply chains.

Findings

Three contexts are proposed to illustrate how intermediaries and digital governance can play a key role in helping supply chains tackle grand challenges. The first and second context highlight the differences between material and support flow intermediaries in a triadic supply chain relationship. The third context illustrates intermediation within a multi-level network which can be industry-specific or span across industries. The three contexts are evaluated on the level of intervention, the focus on material or support flows, and traditional or digital governance. The specific Sustainable Development Goals which can be tackled through intermediary intervention are also indicated.

Originality/value

Intermediaries are often hidden actors in global supply chains and have received limited attention in the academic literature. The conceptual foundation provided in this manuscript serves as the basis for future research opportunities. Three main avenues for further research in this domain are proposed: (1) novel forms of intermediation beyond economic and transactional arrangements; (2) novel forms of digital governance; and (3) translating multi-level collective action into sustainable development outcomes. Research on intermediation driven by sustainable development and digitalization trends can spur empirical advances in sustainable supply chain and operations management with important societal impact.

Enterprise digital transformation and customer concentration: An examination based on dynamic capability theory

Digital transformation of traditional enterprises can better develop new customer relationships and help mitigate the business risk of their over-reliance on single-customer relationships. However, little research has been conducted on the internal mechanisms of how enterprise digitalization reshapes corporate customer relationships. In this manuscript, from the perspective of dynamic capability theory, we construct conceptual models of enterprise digital transformation, innovation capability, operational cost, and customer satisfaction, and explore the internal mechanisms of enterprise digital transformation to reduce the dependence of enterprises on large customers. The model is empirically studied by obtaining data on the degree of digital transformation of enterprises through “search statistics” of keywords in the annual reports of Chinese listed companies during 2011–2019. This manuscript finds that digital transformation significantly reduces the concentration of large customers and has become a powerful driver of business model innovation in the digital economy, and this finding remains robust to the use of PSM and instrumental variable methods to address endogeneity. Digital transformation reduces firms’ dependence on large customers through three mechanisms: improving firms’ innovation capabilities, reducing firms’ operating costs, and increasing customer satisfaction. The impact of digital transformation on reducing the dependence of non-state enterprises on large customers is greater than that of state-owned enterprises; the implementation of digital transformation strategies is more helpful for enterprises that have active interactions with customers to reduce their customer concentration; and the reduction of customer concentration is greater for enterprises in regions with higher levels of digital development compared to those in regions with lower levels of digital development. The economic consequence test finds that digital transformation diversifies customer structure and reduces business risks. The analysis of the innovation effect and customer satisfaction effect on reducing the concentration of large customers of enterprisesby implementing digital transformation enriches and expands the dynamic capability theory and provides important insights for enterprises to diversify their customer structure.

In Stars We Trust – A Note on Reputation Portability Between Digital Platforms

Complementors accumulate reputation on an ever-increasing number of online platforms. While the effects of reputation within individual platforms are well-understood, its potential effectiveness across platform boundaries has received much less attention. This research note considers complementors’ ability to increase their trustworthiness in the eyes of prospective consumers by importing reputational data from another platform. The study evaluates this potential lever by means of an online experiment, during which specific combinations of on-site and imported rating scores are tested. Results reveal that importing reputation can be advantageous – but also detrimental, depending on ratings’ values. Implications for complementors, platform operators, and regulatory bodies concerned with online reputation are considered.

Digitalization of waste management: Insights from German private and public waste management firms

Policymakers, practitioners, and scholars have long-lauded digital technologies, such as smart waste containers or artificial intelligence for material recognition and robotic automation, as key enablers to more effective and efficient waste management. While these advances promise an increasingly digitalized future for collecting, sorting, and recycling waste material, little is known about the current extent of digitalization by waste management firms. Available studies focus on firms' digitalization intentions, largely neglecting the level of actual adoption of digital technologies, and do not differentiate the level of digitalization alongside different steps of the waste management value chain. Our study reports on a cross-sectional descriptive survey that captures current digitalization efforts and strategies of 130 public and private waste management firms in Germany. We analyze their levels of digitalization along with different steps of the waste management value chain, explore their different objectives, approaches, and transformational measures with regard to digitalization. Our findings reveal that while the perceived importance of digitalization in the waste management sector continues to grow, the actual adoption of advanced digital technologies falls notably behind intentions reported in 2016 and 2017. We explore the reasons for this gap, point out so far largely ignored research opportunities, and derive recommendations for waste management firms and associations.

Moving Consumers from Free to Fee in Platform-Based Markets: An Empirical Study of Multiplayer Online Battle Area Games

Companies in platform-based business markets have widely embraced freemium business models, in which profit is primarily determined by a minority of paying customers. However, the key challenge of these models is transitioning participants from free users to paying consumers. To encourage paid consumption, companies often rely on product differentiation such as providing consumers who pay for products or services with enhanced features. Product differentiation can be broadly classified into two categories: taste differentiation and quality differentiation. The authors demonstrate that extending the magnitude of taste differentiation is an effective differentiation strategy. Quality differentiation, however, is a double-edged sword and should be used with care. Increasing product differentiation leads to greater perceived value of the service, but undermines fairness perceptions.

Interoperability in the era of digital innovation: An information systems research agenda

Digital innovation enables new forms of cyber-physical innovation based on digital business ecosystems. However, the realization of the opportunities arising from such innovation substantially hinges on interoperability, that is, the ability of two or more systems to exchange information and understand that exchanged information. While interoperability is a long-standing topic in research and practice alike and a valuable knowledge base exists, digital innovation poses novel challenges that might not be covered by conventional wisdom. Accordingly, we review the literature and, first, propose an organizing framework for existing interoperability knowledge involving the contextual conditions of low interoperability, the mechanisms to increase interoperability, and the associated outcomes. Second, we use the framework to identify previous research foci in the scholarly discourse about interoperability and to discuss the potential limitations of this past work in light of digital innovation. Third, we propose a research agenda that enables information systems (IS) research to address the identified limitations—involving conceptual, scoping, and methodological issues—and provide specific recommendations on how to address the identified issues in future IS research. Finally, we propose five major research topics for further inquiry by combining the challenges identified in current knowledge with the current shift toward hyper-connected ecosystems underlying digital innovation.

The role of transformational entrepreneurship in managing a digital platform: the case of Yamamay

Purpose

Transformational entrepreneurship (TE) is a concept referring to the ability of entrepreneurs to face global challenges, such as the economic crisis, to improve the well-being of the community. Considering the current scenario of COVID-19, the way digital platforms support TE in overcoming a crisis, specifically the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, was analysed.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve the goal, the authors used the case study methodology. The interview was compared for the company analysed stands out due to its use of digital platforms as a tool to increase brand value. The authors conducted a semi-structured, open-ended interview with the entrepreneur and founder of Yamamay, a company operating in the retail sector. The results obtained from validity using the open coding method.

Findings

The main findings show that the implementation of digital platforms supported the entrepreneur in formulating strategic choices that allowed the company to continue offering its services despite the store closures imposed by the pandemic. The whole concept of traditional retail has been and continues to be revised, rationalising it and integrating it with a more omnichannel logic in which digital platforms play a fundamental role.

Practical implications

This paper provides market participants with useful information regarding the ability of this form of technology to support entrepreneurs in a crisis context. The results could also serve as an example for other retail companies regarding how to manage the consequences of the pandemic.

Originality/value

This contribution represents an extension of the existing literature that deepens the understanding of the relationship between digital platforms and TE in a particular scenario, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The effect of business decisions on the adoption of digital platforms to meet increasing and changing customer needs has been examined.

Digital Platforms for the Common Good: Social Innovation for Active Citizenship and ESG

The platform business model has attracted significant attention in business research and practice. However, much of the existing literature studies commercial platforms that seek to maximize profit. In contrast, we focus on a platform for volunteers that aims to maximize social impact. This business model is called a platform for the common good. The article proposes a Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) model that explains how a platform for the common good creates value. Our model maps the key strategic feedback loops that constitute the core structure of the platform and explains its growth and performance through time. We show that multiple types of network effects create interlocking, reinforcing feedback loops. Overall, the article contributes towards a dynamic theory of the platforms for the common good. Moreover, the article provides insights for social entrepreneurs who seek to build, understand, and optimize platforms that maximize social value and managers of companies that seek to participate in such platforms. Social entrepreneurs should seek to leverage the critical feedback loops of their platform.

Couchsurfing with Bateson: An ecology of digital platforms

Digital platforms radically alter socio-economic and organizational patterns. In an ecological sense, they enable the rapid extension of tolerance limits by digitally scaling variables such as the availability of accommodation or labour. However, such maximization of specific variables in a complex ecology bears the danger of pathological runaway patterns. In our paper we draw on the work of Gregory Bateson to outline an analytical approach for the study of digital platforms as ecological phenomena, focusing on the effects of digitalization on the context in which platforms operate. To study such meta-patterns, we elaborate three interrelated concepts: stress, adaptation and budgets of flexibility. We exemplify these ideas through a longitudinal study of the early digital platform Couchsurfing and develop implications for our understanding of technology and organization.

And the Winner Is …? The Desirable and Undesirable Effects of Platform Awards

We study platform firms’ decision to recognize innovative products by complementors ex post through awards. We find that awards—despite being purely symbolic—might set incentives for complementors’ product strategies that can eventually lead to both desirable and undesirable outcomes for the platform firm. First, awards encourage recipients to focus on releasing complement improvements rather than new complements. Second, awards increases recipients’ likelihood of multihoming. Finally, awards increase new complement releases in the recipients’ market niche by attracting other complementors. Firms can directly benefit from the analyses presented in this study. For platform firms, this study’s results suggest that awards have significant effects on complementors’ behavior despite representing only symbolic and nonfinancial mechanisms. Platform managers should consider the flexibility of awards as a particular strength: an award can, for instance, be given to “the best complement” with no need to define the criteria exactly. Nevertheless, platform managers should be aware that employing awards requires a careful evaluation of whether their effects are desirable. Given that awards can encourage multihoming, platform managers are advised to employ additional mechanisms to increase recipients’ loyalty to the platform, for example, through contractual exclusivity arrangements.

Digital Technology Platforms as an Innovative Tool for the Implementation of Renewable Energy Sources

The subject matter addressed in the paper concerns digital technology platforms in the context of renewable energy sources. The main goal is to check whether digital technology platforms can be effective factors in implementing innovative business models in the RES sector. The study was based on empirical research using Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) and Computer-Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) methods, as well as on a model of attitudes towards digital technology platforms (DTPs) built using CATREG (categorical regression) analysis. As a result of the research, it was found that digital technology platforms contribute to building innovative business models. The decisive influence on this is a number of benefits for enterprises and consumers (and the related factor is the most important when it comes to attitudes towards DTP), as well as the high interest in digital RES platforms.

Steps toward a digital ecology: ecological principles for the study of digital ecosystems

The notion of digital ecosystems has become a fruitful metaphor for examining the effects of digitalization across boundaries of organization, industry, lifeworld, mind, and body. In business-economic terms, the metaphor has inspired IS research into new business models, while in engineering terms, it has led to important insights into the design and governance of digital platforms. Studying digital ecosystems in these terms, however, makes it difficult to trace and explain those effects of digitalization, which do not materialize predominantly in economic and engineering patterns. Important relationships and their effects may therefore go unnoticed. In response, I draw on the ecological epistemology of Gregory Bateson and others to contribute an ecological approach to digital ecosystems. Such an understanding, I argue, expands the possibilities for tracing and explaining the wide-reaching, boundary-crossing effects of digitalization and the runaway dynamics they may lead to. I suggest to do this based on three principles: (1) part-of-ness—phenomena are to be observed as always part of a larger ecosystem; (2) systemic wisdom—ecosystems have limits, which need to be respected; and (3) information ecology—ecosystems are not mechanical but informed, cognitive systems. As my contribution, I propose six avenues for future IS research into digital ecology.

Making sense of continuous development of digital infrastructures

Continuous development extends the agile approach and focuses on bringing valuable services to users with the aim of achieving a continuous flow of learning and development in short cycles. The objective of this work is to theorize the idea of continuous development in the context of digital infrastructure evolution and explore the organizational interactions underlying continuous development. By drawing on literature on digital infrastructure theory and continuous development as it has emerged as an idea from the DevOps thinking expanded from agile, we outline main characteristics of continuous development and propose a theoretical definition of continuous development in organizational contexts. Then, in answering our research question “which patterns of interactions can be identified in the continuous development of digital infrastructures?”, we conducted a longitudinal case study at a Norwegian grid company and explored how a specific digital infrastructure evolved through continuous development. We identified generic interaction patterns with two cycles of sense-giving and sense-making between organizational actors, enabling the continuous development of the digital infrastructure. Our findings and model of interaction patterns offer a nuanced perspective on both digital infrastructure evolution and established views of sense-making and sense-giving mechanisms, as well as new ways to think about digitalization in incumbent firms.

Online Black-Markets: An Investigation of a Digital Infrastructure in the Dark

This paper investigates the functioning of Online Black-Markets (OBMs), i.e. a digital infrastructure operating in the Dark Net that enables the exchange of illegal goods such as drugs, weapons and fake digital identities. OBMs exist notwithstanding adverse conditions such as police interventions, scams and market breakdowns. Relying on a longitudinal case study, we focus on the dynamics of interactions among actors and marketplace technologies and we identify three mechanisms explaining OBMs operations. In particular, we show that OBMs infrastructure is the result of commoditization, platformization and resilience processes. Our contribution relies on the identification of community-based mechanisms that generate the OBMs infrastructure, extending the current understanding of e-commerce and social commerce.