The language of platform governance: An economics-based scoping review of SME value creation and dependency in digital platform ecosystems

Olivia Putri Dahlan ()
Additional contact information
Olivia Putri Dahlan: Privietlab Research Center

Journal of Financial Literacy, 2026, vol. 1, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Digital platforms have become a dominant form of economic organization, yet small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often participate in platform ecosystems without clear guidance on how platform governance changes value creation and value capture. This study develops an original economics-based scoping review of peer-reviewed, DOI-bearing literature to explain how platform participation affects SME performance, innovation, and dependency. Drawing on transaction cost economics, institutional economics, resource-based theory, dynamic capabilities, multi-sided market theory, and ecosystem strategy, the article asks: What economic mechanisms explain SME value creation on platforms, what governance tensions affect value capture, and what research agenda follows for business management scholarship? A theory-led scoping method was used to synthesize 40 DOI-verified sources, including foundational economics articles and contemporary digital platform studies. The synthesis identifies five connected mechanisms: transaction-cost economizing, network-effect scaling, boundary-resource governance, ecosystem complementarities, and SME platform capability. It also shows that platforms do not simply reduce market frictions; they relocate coordination, bargaining, and innovation risks from traditional firm boundaries into platform rules, interfaces, data architectures, and complementor relationships. The article contributes a three-layer framework - economizing, orchestrating, and capability-building - and proposes testable propositions for future empirical research. The findings suggest that SMEs benefit most when digital platform capability and network capability are combined with institutional safeguards against platform-owner opportunism, opaque algorithmic governance, and complementor displacement. The study concludes that platform participation is best understood not as a purely technological adoption decision but as a governance choice shaped by transaction costs, capabilities, and ecosystem power.

Keywords: Digital platforms; SMEs; platform ecosystems; digital transformation; scoping review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journal.privietlab.org/download.php?id=10219 (application/pdf)

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:prv:jflprv:1863

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://journal.priv ... FL/article/view/1863

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Financial Literacy from Privietlab Research Center
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mochammad Fahlevi ().