Product platforms as a lever of competitive advantage on a company-wide level: a resource management perspective

Abstract

In many industries, companies use product platforms as a means to reduce costs and obtain access to multiple market segments by developing different product variants. Product platforms are a collection of modules or parts that are common to a number of products. This commonality is developed intentionally to achieve desired effects in order to create value. The existing product platform literature provides many insights from a product-level perspective. Here, we analyze the strategic role of product platforms on a company-wide level. We discuss product platforms in the context of resource management approaches and analyze whether and to what extent understanding product platform as resources can help companies improve their strategic market position. The results are integrated into an adapted framework for product platforms as manageable resources. We emphasize the role of product platforms in the resource portfolio transition of a company: companies can use resources like skilled employees to create product platforms as superior resources. To ensure the productive use of these resources during product development, a systematic management process is required. Within that process, product platform resources have to be bundled with other resources and/or capabilities. Sustainable success for a company is achieved when its platform knowledge is synchronized with other units across management levels over time. Thinking of product platforms as resources helps companies to better understand the strategic value of these platforms and find ways to make use of them to create competitive advantages.