Product Platform Development Research Articles

Interplay between Platform Providers and Complementors via Affordance, Autonomy, and Super-Modularity: The Empirical Investigation of the Korean Digital Industry

This study examines the dynamic interplay between platform providers and complementors in the context of digital ecosystems, focusing on the complementary factors of affordance, autonomy, and super-modularity. Using national survey data from the Korean digital industry, the study applied multivariate ordered probit and k-mode clustering models to analyze what determines these factors and how these factors are interrelated from the perspective of platform providers and complementors, respectively. The results indicate that platform providers with open APIs promote affordance, but providing an SDK inhibits affordance. In terms of complementors, choosing a platform providing APIs increases super-modularity. And affordance increases when using the platform for logistics and new product development. In addition, we found that affordance and autonomy have a trade-off relationship from the perspective of both platform providers and complementors. Finally, we classified platforms and complementors into subgroups with respect to affordance, autonomy, and super-modularity using cluster analysis and found that the size of a complementor’s firm, such as revenue and number of employees, influences which platform it chooses. Conversely, the size of a platform provider also influences how much autonomy and collaboration it offers. This study contributes to the understanding of digital platform ecosystems and provides insights for practitioners on how to leverage platform dynamics to enhance competitive advantage.

Beyond “platformania” in the construction sector: Conceptualisations and implications of product platformisation in the UK

The UK government’s recent transformation agenda focused on a Platform approach to Design for Manufacture and Assembly (P-DfMA) has attracted interest from the construction sector. A closer examination of the P-DfMA agenda raises questions about its origins and implications. This paper critically analyses grey sector literature, policy and government-supported reports on P-DfMA to discuss how it has been conceptualised, and the implications for the growing “platformania” in the UK construction sector. To this end, firstly platform conceptualisations are synthesised, and distinctions between product platforms and DfMA are highlighted. Secondly, based on an analysis of policy and related documents, five areas critical to driving the platformisation agenda are identified: Product platform development; digitally designed components; platform leadership and ownership; platform governance; and business models. The critical analysis suggests that product platformisation in the UK construction sector requires two distinct types of platform approaches: the product platform; and a transaction platform or a marketplace for buyers and sellers of the components of product platforms. The implications of both for the strategic organising of construction firms, and the five areas identified, are discussed and synthesised with the evidence from management literature. Practical and policy implications for sector stakeholders are outlined, along with questions for future research on product platformisation in the construction sector.

LINKING DIGITAL B2B PLATFORM BUSINESS MODELS AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS AND LITERATURE REVIEW

AbstractDeveloping digital platform business models, especially in business-to-business (B2B) markets, has a high potential for companies who successfully develop their products in generations. The model of SGE - System Generation Engineering describes the development of mechatronic systems on subsystem level. The authors investigate to what extent a comprehensive and unified methodology can be identified, connecting the research areas of product development and digital B2B platform business models. Therefore, this study conducted a bibliometric analysis of scientific data to identify a research gap and a qualitative literature review to affirm the relevance of future research in this research area. The results show a gap between the research areas of digital B2B platform business models and product development. Essentially, several renowned platform researchers suggested performing future research with a methodology that fulfils the following purposes: (1) improve the general understanding of digital platforms, (2) understand their success factors and development, and (3) deal with challenges (e.g., monetization) and loss of valued personal relations in B2B markets through digitization.

Platforming for industrialized building: a comparative case study of digitally-enabled product platforms

ABSTRACT Digitally-enabled product platforms are becoming prominent approaches for industrialized building. Such a platform is a collection of common and stable modules and interfaces that can derive products effectively using digital delivery. The usage of construction product platforms has been studied in the existing buildings literature; however, there is relatively less on firms’ strategies of platform elements for platforming, which encompasses both the development and deployment of a digitally-enabled product platform. This paper examines how construction firms strategize for platforming, through a comparative case study approach with nine international case firms. Findings indicate that three typologies platforms that firms implemented: those rely on a kit of parts only; those have also developed structured interfaces; and those have also established design rules. Inferring from findings, this paper articulates the influential role of customer requirement certainties across multiple market segments in shaping these strategies. By offering a novel classification of platforming strategies under varied certainties of customer requirements across market segments, this paper contributes to the research on construction product platforming strategies. This has implications for practitioners and opens new areas for research, taking the characteristics of customer requirements within or across market segments into account in strategic decision-making on digitally-enabled product platforms.

Pemasaran Sosial Media dan Pengembangan Produk pada Pelaku UMKM Makanan di Carocok Pesisir Selatan

Large- and small-scale enterprises have a growing need to expand marketing access by employing social media as a platform for selling and product development to increase sales. Community service activities were conducted in Carocok, Pesisir Selatandistrict, West Sumatra, with the participation of fifteen seafood-related business actors. The Community Service team provides SME business owners with training and expertise regarding marketing access on social media and product development to enhance sales and maximize profitability for MSME owners in the food business that process marine raw materials. The outcomes of service activities supply business owners with the knowledge necessary to formulate marketing strategies, particularly social media marketing and product development.

Gender Differences in Responses to Competitive Organization? A Field Experiment on Differences Between STEM and Non-STEM Fields from an Internet-of-Things Platform

Prior research, primarily based on laboratory experiments of children and students, suggests that women might be more averse to competition than are men; women might, instead, be more inclined toward collaboration. Were these findings to generalize to working-age men and women across the workforce, there could be profound implications for organizational design and personnel management. We report on a field experiment in which 97,678 adults from a wide range of fields of training and career stages were invited to join a product development platform. Individuals were randomly assigned to treatments framing the opportunity as either involving competitive or collaborative interactions with other participants. Among those outside of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, we find differences in the willingness of men and women to participate under competition. Thus, patterns in non-STEM fields conform to the usual claims of gender differences. However, among those in STEM fields, we find no statistical gender differences. Results hold under a series of alternative specifications, controls, and stratified analyses of 17 narrowly defined STEM subfields. The results are consistent with sorting into fields on the basis of competitiveness, as suggested by prior research, as well as other explanations we discuss. Overall, heterogeneity among women and heterogeneity among men appear to be at least as important as population-wide gender differences. History: This paper has been accepted for the Organization Science Special Issue on Experiments in Organizational Theory. Funding: This work was supported by Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation [Grant G00005624]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.1624 .

Organizational learning for implementing product platforms: A case study of an automotive manufacturer

Product platform development has become a norm in practice for manufacturing companies, enabling firms to develop and produce products more efficiently, shortening the time needed to develop new derivatives, and reducing unit procurement costs. However, the required organizational activities for product platform development with different architectural knowledge need further exploration. We conduct a case study of an automotive manufacturer in China to explore how firms engage in organizational learning processes when implementing product platforms with different architectural knowledge. This study illustrates four organizational learning approaches rooted in exploration and exploitation, yields four configurations between architectural knowledge and the required organizational learning approaches and reveals that each of these architecture knowledge‐organizational learning configurations produces different organizational performance.

Science and Business Developments

Science and Business Developments

Open Innovation Using Satellite Imagery for Initial Site Assessment of Solar Photovoltaic Projects

One of the responses to the fight against climate change by the developing world has been the large-scale adoption of solar energy. The adoption of solar energy in countries like India is propagating mainly through the development of energy producing photovoltaic farms. The realization of solar energy producing sites involves complex decisions and processes in the selection of sites whose knowhow may not rest with all the stakeholders supporting (e.g., banks financing the project) the industry value chain. In this article, we use the region of Bangalore in India as the case study to present how open innovation using satellite imagery can provide the necessary granularity to specifically aid in an independent initial assessment of the solar photovoltaic sites. We utilize the established analytical hierarchy process over the information extracted from open satellite data to calculate an overall site suitability index. The index takes into account the topographical, climatic, and environmental factors. Our results explain how the intervention of satellite imagery-based big data analytics can help in buying the confidence of investors in the solar industry value chain. Our study also demonstrates that open innovation using satellites can act as a platform for social product development.

Marketing platform products for successful customer outcomes: an empirical investigation of project process integration

PurposeCross-functional teams engage in developing platform projects which become the basis of many smaller projects. The purpose of this paper is to examine how project teams engage in front-end plan formulation and backend work implementation. This paper shows the critical linkage role of platform product practices.Design/methodology/approachThis study examines the conceptual framework and research model by using a survey questionnaire for the target respondents of product development managers from the USA and Korea. After refining processes, this study determines the items for each variable for the large-scale survey.FindingsResults suggest that when heavy-manager and customers are jointly or separately involved with a project team for the formation of shared team purpose and mission, then there would be differences in terms of information quality, shared team purpose and mission and the project outcomes. If the primary roles of heavyweight leadership and customer involvement are to improve information quality in terms of reduction of uncertainty and equivocality, then the project team is empowered enough to work on the formation of shared team purpose and mission on their own. Platform product practices are a linkage between front-end planning and back-end work doing which guides more specific projects with shared purpose and performance goals.Research limitations/implicationsAs the data collection was limited to the USA and Korea, generalizability across diverse contexts requires caution. However, the findings provide meaningful insight on how to manage projects in an environment of increasing complexity and ambiguity.Practical implicationsThis study provides interesting insight into how project teams approach platform product development. Based on the empirical test, this study shows how cross-functional teams integrate front-end project plan formulation and back-end project work implementation. This study also presents how heavyweight manager and customer involvement addresses the front-end information challenges and influence platform product practices.Originality/valueThis study empirically tests the role of fuzzy front planning in impacting project team success. In particular, this study highlights the dynamic relationships between heavyweight managers and customer involvement, information quality (i.e. uncertainty and equivocality), and the nature of team purpose and mission which are all crucial for effective cross-functional teamwork.

Inventing Together: The Role of Actor Goals and Platform Affordances in Open Innovation Data-Centric Knowing

With the ubiquity of the internet and social media platforms, open innovation (OI) opportunities now extend to individuals with creative ideas and interests in innovation. Understanding why individuals are willing to engage in open innovation and how their diverse goals affect their participation is important for assessing the viability of various OI models and to inform platform design. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model that examines the impact of three categories of human goals extrinsic, intrinsic, and internalized extrinsic on actors continuous intentions to participate in three general categories of open innovation behaviors: ideation, collaboration, and socialization. The model also considers how perceived platform participation affordances mediate the influence of goals on these innovation behaviors. We validate this goals-affordances-behavior model via a field survey of participants on a social product development (SPD) platform. By theorizing and empirically examining how goals influence participation in the SPD context, our study advances knowledge about open innovation behaviors, provides a foundation for future research across various OI models, and highlights practical insights for OI platform design.

Gender Differences in Response to Competitive Organization? Differences Across Fields from a Product Development Platform Field Experiment

Gender Differences in Response to Competitive Organization? Differences Across Fields from a Product Development Platform Field Experiment

Addressing specialization and fragmentation: product platform development in construction consultancy firms

Construction product platforms provide the opportunity to improve productivity in construction projects while maintaining heterogeneity of output. The growing literature on construction product platforms describes how product suppliers develop product platforms either top-down or bottom-up, independently from project delivery. Through a single case study of a consultancy firm, this paper shows how a specialist consultancy firm operating in the construction sector developed their own product platform on projects while iteratively developing and augmenting their delivery capabilities. Distinguishing between activity integration, coordination, and consolidation, the platform development process highlights how vertical and horizontal consolidation of capabilities within the engineering phase of delivery enables early resolution of both product and process specifications. This means that vertical coordination between engineering and manufacturing phases can be managed by a fully specified contract, rather than acquisition. The analysis of the case shows how construction can be more closely aligned with the linear and sequential models found in manufacturing through clarifying and distinguishing the roles of engineering, manufacturing, finishing and sub-assembly.

Knowledge-driven material design platform based on the whole-process simulation and modeling

In order to realize the agility, collaboration and visualization of alloy material development process, a product development platform based on simulation and modeling technologies is established in this study. In this platform, the whole-process simulation module builds multi-level simulation models based on metallurgical mechanisms from the production line level, the thermo-mechanical coupling field level and the microstructure evolution level. The design knowledge management module represents the multi-source heterogeneous material design knowledge through ontology model, including customers’ requirement knowledge, material component knowledge, process design knowledge and quality inspection knowledge, and utilizes the case-based reasoning approach to reuse the knowledge. The data-driven modeling module applies machine learning algorithms to mine the relationships between product mechanical properties, material components, and process parameters from historical samples, and utilizes multi-objective optimization algorithms to find the optimal combination of process parameters. Application of the developed platform in actual steel mills shows that the proposed method helps to improve the efficiency of product design process.

The Role of Manufacturing Flexibility Strategy On Product Platform Development

The Role of Manufacturing Flexibility Strategy On Product Platform Development

The role of manufacturing flexibility strategy on product platform development

Manufacturing flexibility is defined here as the variety in product mix and volume that can be produced by a manufacturing plant. Several firms have adopted an approach of using common product desi...

PENGEMBANGAN PRODUK INDIKASI GEOGRAFIS DALAM KONTEKS SHARING ECONOMY DI ERA DISRUPSI DIGITAL

It is such an irony that Indonesia, as one of the biggest archipelagic countries blessed with unique and vary geographical conditions along with great potential to develop high quality product combined with creativity, social and cultural factors,remains in struggle to formulate and develop local creativity and collectivity as the people’s economy pillars with significant benefits. In accordance with those facts, this research aimedto provide critical conceptual ideas for Geographical Indications utilization as the part of intellectual property rooted from locality but has been internationally accepted. The findingsshowedthat Geographical Indication products posses utter potential to play the determinant role in creating trickle-down effect and bottom-up economic development instrument through the sharing of economic framework. Furthermore, digital disruption era offersan effective platform for product development and promotion in a collaborative spacein generating income, creatingjob vacancy, povertyelevation, community empowermentand development

Foam-in-vein: A review of rheological properties and characterization methods for optimization of sclerosing foams.

Varicose veins are chronic venous defects that affect >20% of the population in developed countries. Among potential treatments, sclerotherapy is one of the most commonly used. It involves endovenous injection of a surfactant solution (or foam) in varicose veins, inducing damage to the endothelial layer and subsequent vessel sclerosis. Treatments have proven to be effective in the short-term, however recurrence is reported at rates of up to 64% 5-year post-treatment. Thus, once diagnosed with varicosities there is a high probability of a permanently reduced quality of life. Recently, foam sclerotherapy has become increasingly popular over its liquid counterpart, since foams can treat larger and longer varicosities more effectively, they can be imaged using ultrasound, and require lower amounts of sclerosing agent. In order to minimize recurrence rates however, an investigation of current treatment methods should lead to more effective and long-lasting effects. The literature is populated with studies aimed at characterizing the fundamental physics of aqueous foams; nevertheless, there is a significant need for appropriate product development platforms. Despite successfully capturing the microstructural evolution of aqueous foams, the complexity of current models renders them inadequate for pharmaceutical development. This review article will focus on the physics of foams and the attempts at optimizing them for sclerotherapy. This takes the form of a discussion of the most recent numerical and experimental models, as well as an overview of clinically relevant parameters. This holistic approach could contribute to better foam characterization methods that patients may eventually derive long term benefit from.

The Gender Gap in Tech & Competitive Work Environments? Field Experimental Evidence from an Internet-of-Things Product Development Platform

Many technology companies struggle to fill all their positions and to achieve gender parity in their ranks. One explanation for gender disparities is the possibility that men and women differ in their willingness to work under competitive organizational environments of tech firms. To investigate this question, this paper reports on a large platform-based field experiment in which 97,696 U.S. university-educated individuals were given the opportunity to join a tech-related product development activity. Individuals were randomly assigned to treatments emphasizing either competitive or collaborative interactions with other participants. We find that (1) in non-STEM fields, the competition treatment leads to a 27% drop in participation for females in comparison to males. However, in our main finding, (2) in STEM fields, we find no statistical differences in men and women’s responses to competition. The patterns are consistent with (3) men in non-STEM fields exhibiting overconfidence in their likelihood of succeeding under competition. We also find that, while participation in highest in STEM fields, (4) the ratio of female to male participation in a field is better predicted by whether the field is male- or female-dominated, than it is by whether it is a STEM field or not. We discuss theoretical interpretations and implications for organizations.

Evolving Antibiotics against Resistance: a Potential Platform for Natural Product Development?

To avoid an antibiotic resistance crisis, we need to develop antibiotics at a pace that matches the rate of evolution of resistance. However, the complex functions performed by antibiotics-combining, e.g., penetration of membranes, counteraction of resistance mechanisms, and interaction with molecular targets-have proven hard to achieve with current methods for drug development, including target-based screening and rational design. Here, we argue that we can meet the evolution of resistance in the clinic with evolution of antibiotics in the laboratory. On the basis of the results of experimental evolution studies of microbes in general and antibiotic production in Actinobacteria in particular, we propose methodology for evolving antibiotics to circumvent mechanisms of resistance. This exploits the ability of evolution to find solutions to complex problems without a need for design. We review evolutionary theory critical to this approach and argue that it is feasible and has important advantages over current methods for antibiotic discovery.