Show Summary Details

Page of

PRINTED FROM OXFORD HANDBOOKS ONLINE (www.oxfordhandbooks.com). © Oxford University Press, 2018. All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a title in Oxford Handbooks Online for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice).

date: 04 March 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter analyses the role that platforms can play in innovation, and their implications for innovation management. It offers a definition of the term ‘platform’, as well as a classification of different types of platforms (internal platforms, supply-chain platforms, and industry platforms). It highlights the fundamental economic and strategic concepts associated with platforms. The chapter clarifies the similarities and differences between the economic conception of platforms as double-sided markets subject to network effects and that of platforms that stimulate “open” innovation by complementors within innovative ecosystems. It also clarifies the role of technological architecture and interfaces in platform innovation. It also examines major cases of platform leadership and innovation challenges that companies face as markets, technologies, and competition evolve. Finally, it reviews some of major remaining issues for future research on platforms and innovation management.

Keywords: platforms, innovation, complementors, supply chains, double-sided markets, open innovation, systems, interfaces, ecosystems, technological architecture, network effects

Annabelle Gawer

Annabelle Gawer, Assistant Professor in Strategy and Innovation, Imperial College Business School.

Michael A. Cusumano

Michael A. Cusumanois the Sloan Management Review Distinguished Professor of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts, USA, with a joint appointment in the MIT Engineering Systems Division.

Access to the complete content on Oxford Handbooks Online requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription.

Please subscribe or login to access full text content.

If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.

For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us.