Extended Generativity Theory on Digital Platforms

Daniel Fürstenau, Abayomi Baiyere, Kai Schewina, Matthias Schulte-Althoff and Hannes Rothe (hannes.rothe@icn-artem.com)
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Daniel Fürstenau: Charité - UniversitätsMedizin = Berlin University Medicine, CBS - Copenhagen Business School [Copenhagen]
Abayomi Baiyere: CBS - Copenhagen Business School [Copenhagen], University of Turku
Kai Schewina: University of Potsdam = Universität Potsdam
Matthias Schulte-Althoff: Freie Universität Berlin
Hannes Rothe: ICN Business School, CEREFIGE - Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises - UL - Université de Lorraine

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Abstract: 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 .

Date: 2023-03-17
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Published in Information Systems Research, 2023, 51 p. ⟨10.1287/isre.2023.1209⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04316488

DOI: 10.1287/isre.2023.1209

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