Institute of Information Systems

Software Industry and Software Platforms

Software Platform Ecosystems

Software Platform Ecosystems

Symbolische Darstellung zur Software Plattform
The development of software increasingly takes place in line with an inter-firm division of labor. In doing so, the product ranges of large software platform providers (so-called hubs) are supplemented by software solutions from other, often smaller suppliers (the so-called spokes). In turn, this leads to the formation of so-called software platform ecosystems.
Symbolische Darstellung des Ecosystems

The coordination of such corporate networks provides both scholars and practitioners with special challenges. Software platform ecosystems are characterized by various tensions, describable with three pairs of opposites: cooperation versus competition, trust versus control, and autonomy versus dependency. These pairs of opposites render the exploration of these corporate networks utterly appealing, as they characterize them as being imbued by power asymmetries and conflicts of interest. Research in this area therefore focusses on the following action-guiding question: How can cooperation be designed smoothly in such a corporate network?

Publications

Hurni, Thomas; Huber, Thomas (10 June 2014). The Interplay of Power and Trust in Platform Ecosystems of the Enterprise Application Software Industry. In: European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2014. Tel Aviv, Israel. 09.06.-11.06.2014.

Kude, Thomas; Dibbern, Jens; Heinzl, Armin (2012). Why Do Complementors Participate? An Analysis of Partnership Networks in the Enterprise Software Industry. IEEE transactions on engineering management, 58(2), pp. 250-265. New York, N.Y.: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE 10.1109/TEM.2011.2111421

Huber, Thomas; Kude, Thomas (2011). Resolving tensions in platform ecosystems of the enterprise application software industry - An exploratory case study. In: 27th EGOS Colloquium. Gothenborg, Sweden. 6.-9. Juli 2011.

Huber, Thomas; Kude, Thomas; Dibbern, Jens (2010). Resolving Tensions in Hub-and-Spoke Networks of the Enterprise Application Software Industry - An Exploratory Case Study. In: Proceedings of the 16th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS). Lima, Peru.