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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(2,926)
- People (9)
- News (700)
- Research (1,651)
- Events (30)
- Multimedia (42)
- Faculty Publications (1,160)
- December 2011
- Article
Platform Envelopment
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne
Due to network effects and switching costs in platform markets, entrants generally must offer revolutionary functionality. We explore a second entry path that does not rely upon Schumpeterian innovation: platform envelopment. Through envelopment, a provider in one... View Details
Keywords: Digital Platforms; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Economic Systems; Development Economics; Business or Company Management; Business Strategy; Network Effects; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry
Eisenmann, Thomas R., Geoffrey Parker, and Marshall Van Alstyne. "Platform Envelopment." Strategic Management Journal 32, no. 12 (December 2011): 1270–1285.
- January 2024
- Article
Dog Eat Dog: Balancing Network Effects and Differentiation in a Digital Platform Merger
By: Chiara Farronato, Jessica Fong and Andrey Fradkin
Digital platforms are increasingly the subject of regulatory scrutiny. In comparison to multiple competitors, a single platform may increase consumer welfare if network effects are large or may decrease welfare due to higher prices or reduction in platform variety. We... View Details
Keywords: Platform Differentiation; Digital Platforms; Network Effects; Measurement and Metrics; Mergers and Acquisitions; Outcome or Result
Farronato, Chiara, Jessica Fong, and Andrey Fradkin. "Dog Eat Dog: Balancing Network Effects and Differentiation in a Digital Platform Merger." Management Science 70, no. 1 (January 2024): 464–483.
- 2018
- Working Paper
Platform Competition: Betfair and the U.K. Market for Sports Betting
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Neil Campbell
We examine two episodes of strategic interaction in the U.K. betting industry: (i) Betfair (an entrant multi-sided platform or MSP) vs. Flutter (also an MSP), and (ii) Betfair vs. traditional bookmakers. We find that although Betfair was an underfunded second mover in... View Details
Keywords: Platform Design; Betting; Digital Platforms; Design; Network Effects; Business Model; Competition; Cooperation; Market Entry and Exit
Casadesus-Masanell, Ramon, and Neil Campbell. "Platform Competition: Betfair and the U.K. Market for Sports Betting." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-057, November 2018.
- 2007
- Working Paper
Platform Envelopment
By: Thomas Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker and Marshall Van Alstyne
Due to network effects and switching costs in platform markets, entrants generally must offer revolutionary functionality. We explore a second entry path that does not rely upon Schumpeterian innovation: platform envelopment. Through envelopment, a provider in one... View Details
Eisenmann, Thomas, Geoffrey Parker, and Marshall Van Alstyne. "Platform Envelopment." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 07-104, June 2007. (Revised September 2008, October 2009, July 2010.)
- March 2022
- Article
From Proprietary to Collective Governance: How Do Platform Participation Strategies Evolve?
By: Siobhan O'Mahony and Rebecca Karp
When platform leaders change the rules guiding who can access and control a platform, the strategies of those who create value from the platform can be upended. Little research examines how platform participants adapt their strategies when a platform leader changes the... View Details
Keywords: Platform Governance; Access; Crowdsourcing; Applications and Software; Employees; Leadership Style; Cybersecurity; Risk Management
O'Mahony, Siobhan, and Rebecca Karp. "From Proprietary to Collective Governance: How Do Platform Participation Strategies Evolve?" Strategic Management Journal 43, no. 3 (March 2022): 530–562.
- 10 Jul 2007
- Working Paper Summaries
Platform Envelopment
- 2022
- Working Paper
Exclusive Dealing and Entry by Competing Two-Sided Platforms
By: Cristian Chica, Kenneth Chuk and Jorge Tamayo
We study competition between horizontally differentiated platforms offering exclusive and non-exclusive contracts to one side of the market (content providers). The introduction of non-exclusive contracts in addition to exclusive contracts softens the competition for... View Details
Keywords: Two-Sided Markets; Platform Price Competition; Network Externalities; Exclusive Contracts; Multi-homing; Digital Platforms; Price; Competition; Contracts
Chica, Cristian, Kenneth Chuk, and Jorge Tamayo. "Exclusive Dealing and Entry by Competing Two-Sided Platforms." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-092, March 2021. (Revised February 2022. R&R International Journal of Industrial Organization.)
- 2019
- Working Paper
Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 17 The Wintel Standards-based Platform
The purpose of this chapter is to use the theory of bottlenecks laid out in previous chapters to better understand the dynamics of an open standards-based platform. I describe how the Wintel platform evolved from 1990 through 2000 under joint sponsorship of Intel and... View Details
Keywords: Open Platforms; Bottlenecks; Wintel Platform; Disintermediation; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Business History; Digital Platforms; Computer Industry
Baldwin, Carliss Y. "Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 17 The Wintel Standards-based Platform." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-055, November 2019.
- Research Summary
Platform Competition
Technology has challenged the underlying foundations of business, and firms must evaluate and change strategies accordingly. Professor Halaburda studies the interaction of technology and economic theory, and her findings indicate that conventional wisdom and rules... View Details
- 2007
- Working Paper
Proprietary vs. Open Two-Sided Platforms and Social Efficiency
By: Andrei Hagiu
This paper identifies a fundamental economic welfare tradeoff between two-sided open platforms and two-sided proprietary (closed) platforms connecting consumers and producers. Proprietary platforms create two-sided deadweight losses through monopoly pricing but at the... View Details
Keywords: Two-Sided Markets; Platforms; Indirect Network Effects; Product Variety; Social Efficiency; Two-Sided Platforms; Network Effects; Welfare or Wellbeing
Hagiu, Andrei. "Proprietary vs. Open Two-Sided Platforms and Social Efficiency." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 07-095, May 2007.
- 10 Dec 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Multi-sided Platforms
- Research Summary
Competing Platforms
This paper focuses on platform-intermediated markets where there
are a small number of firms on one side and analyzes the strategic
competition among platforms to get the oligopolistic side
on-board. Due to the prevalence of both same and cross-side
externalities,... View Details
- 2011
- Working Paper
Quantity vs. Quality: Exclusion by Platforms with Network Effects
By: Andrei Hagiu
This paper provides a simple model of platforms with direct network effects, in which users value not just the quantity (i.e., number) of other users who join, but also their average quality in some dimension. A monopoly platform is more likely to exclude low-quality... View Details
Keywords: Multi-sided Platforms; Exclusion; Quality And Quantity; Cost; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Network Effects; Market Participation; Digital Platforms; Monopoly; Quality; Motivation and Incentives; Strategy
Hagiu, Andrei. "Quantity vs. Quality: Exclusion by Platforms with Network Effects." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-125, May 2011.
- 2021
- Working Paper
Assessing the Strength of Network Effects in Social Network Platforms
By: Marco Iansiti
Network effects have risen to the forefront of platform competition discussions (e.g. the House Judiciary investigation of competition in digital markets, claiming that Facebook, for example, is entrenched due to strong network effects and high switching costs). While... View Details
Keywords: Social Networks; Platform Competition; Network Effects; Competition; Social Media; Digital Platforms
Iansiti, Marco. "Assessing the Strength of Network Effects in Social Network Platforms." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 21-086, February 2021.
- October 2019 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance
By: David Yoffie and Daniel Fisher
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook based on the idea that connecting people was a fundamentally good thing—and a way to turn a handsome profit. But from the beginning, Facebook received criticism both for how it handled user privacy and how it curated user-generated... View Details
Keywords: Platform; Governance; Privacy; Internet and the Web; Corporate Governance; Ethics; Business and Government Relations; Strategy; Digital Platforms; Web Services Industry
Yoffie, David, and Daniel Fisher. "Fixing Facebook: Fake News, Privacy, and Platform Governance." Harvard Business School Case 720-400, October 2019. (Revised January 2020.)
- March 2018
- Teaching Note
Adaptive Platform Trials: The Clinical Trial of the Future?
By: Ariel D. Stern and Sarah Mehta
This teaching note provides guidance and recommendations for teaching HBS Case No. 618-025, entitled “Adaptive Platform Trials: The Clinical Trial of the Future?” View Details
- 24 Oct 2008
- Working Paper Summaries
Platform Rules: Multi-Sided Platforms as Regulators
- 2009
- Chapter
Platform Rules: Multi-Sided Platforms As Regulators
By: Kevin J. Boudreau and Andrei Hagiu
This chapter provides a basic conceptual framework for interpreting non-price instruments used by multi-sided platforms (MSPs) by analogizing MSPs as "private regulators" who regulate access to and interactions around the platform. We present evidence on Facebook,... View Details
Boudreau, Kevin J., and Andrei Hagiu. "Platform Rules: Multi-Sided Platforms As Regulators." In Platforms, Markets and Innovation, edited by Annabelle Gawer. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009.
- 2019
- Working Paper
Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 14 Introducing Open Platforms and Ecosystems
The purpose of this chapter is to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive theoretical investigation of open platform systems. To do this, we must first recognize that, although there is a strong family resemblance among all platform systems, there are different types of... View Details
Keywords: Open Platforms; Business Ecosystems; Information Technology; Organizational Design; Industry Structures; Digital Platforms
Baldwin, Carliss Y. "Design Rules, Volume 2: How Technology Shapes Organizations: Chapter 14 Introducing Open Platforms and Ecosystems." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-035, October 2018. (Revised January 2019.)
- November 2015
- Article
Multi-Sided Platforms
By: Andrei Hagiu and Julian Wright
We study the economic tradeoffs that drive organizations to position themselves closer to or further away from a multi-sided platform (MSP) business model, relative to three traditional alternatives: vertically integrated firms, resellers or input suppliers. These... View Details
Hagiu, Andrei, and Julian Wright. "Multi-Sided Platforms." International Journal of Industrial Organization 43 (November 2015): 162–174.