Disruption in Platform‐Based Ecosystems

Hakan Ozalp, Carmelo Cennamo and Annabelle Gawer

Journal of Management Studies, 2018, vol. 55, issue 7, 1203-1241

Abstract: We study intergenerational platform‐technology transitions as instances of potentially disruptive innovation at the ecosystem level. Examining the launch of 12 platform technologies in the U.S. videogame industry covering three console generations from 1993 until 2010, we show that incumbents introducing next‐generation platform technologies with advanced capabilities increase the challenges of developing complements for the platform technology, steepening complementors’ learning curves and disrupting the very same complementors that platform owners need to thrive in the next‐generation competition. We find that, because of these struggles, platforms with advanced capabilities but high complement‐development challenges show a pattern of defection of complementors toward rival, less challenging platforms. Our study extends mainstream disruptive‐innovation theory to the context of platform‐based ecosystems by offering a systemic view that accounts for disaffection on the part of technology complementors—rather than end users—as the main reason for disruption.

Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (40)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12351

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:55:y:2018:i:7:p:1203-1241

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... s.asp?ref=00022-2380

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Management Studies is currently edited by Timothy Clark, Steven W. Floyd and Mike Wright

More articles in Journal of Management Studies from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().