Intelligent System Construction Paths for Digitalization Process of Real Economy: A Study from the Perspective of Artificial Intelligence and Platform Leverage

Abstract

This study studies the internal driving force and system construction issues in the integration of information technology and traditional business. Established on theory of platform leverage in the value creation, we use causal analysis and case studies to explore two closely related questions with data of 31 digital platforms (including 21 focal cases and 10 reference cases): (i) what is the value creation mechanism of these digital platforms? and (ii) how does the value creation mechanism affect the construction path of the system? The study identified three typical value creation mechanism configurations, i.e., innovation-driven, business integration, and data-driven, and then explained the system construction paths of these three configurations. We observed that the production and innovation leverages are the general construction drivers of the platform. However, the transaction leverage is only significant in a small number of platforms; that is, the role of network effects can be observed. These findings can deepen our understanding of platform theory in the digitalization of the real economy and explain why network effects cannot be the source of competitive advantage within the economic digitalization scenarios. We believe that it is of great significance to the digital transformation practice of the economy.