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Entrepreneurship in digital platforms: A network‐centric view
Author(s) -
Srinivasan Arati,
Venkatraman N.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
strategic entrepreneurship journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.061
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1932-443X
pISSN - 1932-4391
DOI - 10.1002/sej.1272
Subject(s) - entrepreneurship , competition (biology) , business , key (lock) , linkage (software) , marketing , perspective (graphical) , knowledge management , computer science , finance , ecology , biochemistry , chemistry , computer security , artificial intelligence , gene , biology
Research summary Research on entrepreneurship has focused primarily on the individual characteristics of founders in driving the success of new ventures offering stand‐alone products and/or services. In recent years, we have seen an increase in entrepreneurship in digital platforms—where success requires positioning products and services within dynamic digital networks that depict complex connections among platforms, complementary modules, and consumers. This article introduces key elements of a theory for settings where entrepreneurship success is intricately connected to the moves of other entrepreneurs and coordinated within and across platforms. We introduce a network‐centric view to understand how entrepreneurs occupying the role of third‐party developers support digital platforms by their choices to link to them. Furthermore, we develop propositions reflecting a dynamic perspective representing two key stages of competition in digital platforms, initial launch, and scale‐up. We hope this work guides further theorizing and empirical research in digital platforms and entrepreneurship in general. Managerial summary Over the last decade, we have seen a rise in digital entrepreneurs who support platforms such as A pple i OS , G oogle's A ndroid, F acebook, T witter, and others. The success of platforms requires support from applications, and entrepreneurs in such settings play a critical role in making some platforms succeed relative to others. Our study provides insight into how digital entrepreneurs can orchestrate strategic moves that allow them to navigate the complex landscape of linking and adapting to different platforms and how these linkage choices can lead to entrepreneurial success.