Platform-based customer agility: An integrated framework of information management structure, capability, and culture

Abstract

Platform-based customer agility is the ability to leverage the voice of the customer on a platform to achieve market intelligence and to explore competitive action opportunities. Prior studies have indicated the critical role of customer agility in enabling the survival and prosperity of contemporary organizations in a turbulent business environment, although how to develop this capability is not answered. The current research attempts to fill this theoretical gap. Drawing on the information management literature, we propose an integrative information management framework to investigate the process of developing customer agility. By conducting a case study of a leading e-commerce platform in China, we identify three types of platform-based customer agility (i.e. reactive customer agility, proactive customer agility, and coactive customer agility) in different phases of the growth of the platform. Furthermore, a process model is developed from the case study. It shows that platform-based customer agility is achieved by establishing information management structure, developing information management capability, and instilling information management culture. This study contributes to the knowledge on customer agility and information management. Detailed recommendations are also provided for potential practitioners.