Paper Info
Title
Complementor Dedication In Platform Ecosystems: Rule Adequacy And The Moderating Role Of Flexible And Benevolent Practices
Abstract
Dedicated complementors are devoted, faithful, and willing to invest in their partnership with a platform owner. Since such complementors promise continuous value co-creation, complementor dedication is an essential objective of platform governance. However, as dedicated complementors also increase their vulnerability vis-a-vis the platform owner, platform governance needs to strike a balance between satisfying global ecosystem needs and the local partnership needs. To understand this challenge better, our study develops six hypotheses on how two fundamental governance mechanisms - i.e., rules and the way in which these rules are practised - independently and symbiotically drive complementor dedication. We test these hypotheses using survey data from 181 complementors. Our findings show that complementors become more dedicated to a platform owner, the more adequate they perceive the rules to be. Furthermore, our findings suggest two sensible strategies to actualise the potential of adequate rules. Platform owners should either refrain entirely from practising rules with situational flexibility and benevolence, thereby achieving moderate complementor dedication. Alternatively, they should practice rules with both flexibility and benevolence at the same time, thereby maximising complementor dedication. Our findings contribute to the literature on platform governance and broader governance literature.
Year
DOI
Venue
2021
10.1080/0960085X.2020.1779621
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Platform ecosystems, complementor dedication, platform governance, rule adequacy, governance practices, flexibility, benevolence, three-way interaction
Journal
30
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
3
0960-085X
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Thomas Hurni100.34
Thomas L. Huber200.34
Jens Dibbern388645.14
Oliver Krancher455.13