A taxonomy and ontology for digital platforms

Abstract

In academic literature and in business communication digital platforms are categorized into different types including, but not limited to, multi-sided platform, digital marketplace, on-demand platform and sharing economy platform. Observing the substantial literature on these platform types, both in academia and professional contexts, there is lack of consensus on the definition of these digital platform types. On top of that, there is a lack of knowledge in the literature on the requirements and design of these digital platform types. We address the observed lack of shared conceptualizations by creating a taxonomy for digital platforms, by classifying digital platforms according to their distinctive features. Further, we address the lack of design knowledge with a digital platform reference ontology that describes the construction and operation of the different types of digital platform that are distinguished in the taxonomy. This reference ontology, developed using the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) and several of its core ontologies, is organized into different ontology modules, allowing to describe functionalities that are common to any digital platform and more specific functionalities that have their origin in the distinctive features that were used to construct the taxonomy. The taxonomy that we contribute helps to clearly define the different types of digital platform that can be observed today. It also helps analysing further evolutions in the platform domain. The contribution of a well-founded digital platform reference ontology is a step towards a better understanding of digital platform functionality, better communication between stakeholders, and eventually may facilitate future research and development of new types of digital platform.