Promoting value emergence through digital platform ecosystems: Perspectives on resource integration in China

Abstract

Although value co-creation of user-enterprise platforms has been investigated in recent decades, only a few empirical efforts have been made to explore the value emergence of digital platform ecosystems from the perspectives of the enterprise, supplier, government, and user interactions, specifically concerning the complexity and emergence of interactions arising out the integration of micro-, meso-, and macro-level resources in China. To address this research gap, this study examines the relationship between user whole-process engagement, value emergence, resource integration, and firm performance from the perspective of resource integration combined with complex systems theory. A questionnaire survey of 377 digital enterprises in different industries in China was conducted; subsequently, the theoretical model was tested by using empirical and experimental methods. The empirical results showed that the emergence of efficiency and integrated value played a mediating role in the relationship between user whole-process engagement and firm performance. Resource integration positively moderated the relationship between user whole-process engagement and value emergence. Simultaneously, value emergence promoted the improvement of multidimensional performance of enterprise platforms, and its impact on a firm's social performance was greater as compared to that on the firm's economic performance. Thus, the research has interesting implications for theory, enterprises, and government.