Open Collections

Ma, Dennis George

University of British Columbia

Platforms are increasingly the nexuses of economic activity and social organization; making them important sociologically and managerially. The strategic management and organizations literature remains concerned with inter-platform competition, which is viewed as being determined by platforms’ underlying network size—the core tenet of extant platform theory. Emerging research increasingly challenges longstanding assumptions underlying dominant platform views; suggesting that network organization supersedes the determinance of network size. Although we know platform network organization matters, current literature remains absent theory to formalize this critical element of platform dynamics. This dissertation extends network ecology approaches to formalize a framework for analyzing platforms’ network activity dynamics to address the research question: how is platform activity organized? I initialize a network dynamic view of the platform by centering on the organization of platform activity from a topological perspective while embracing heterogeneity in platform environments and network configurations. Specifically, this dissertation focuses on the relationship between platforms’ activity integration and growth. I develop a platform network theory of connectance, centralization, clustering, centralized clustering, and cross-functionality. These five Cs provide an initial representation of network organization under a long-due framework for activity-oriented network dynamic platform analysis. Using latent growth modeling with comprehensive fixed effects on complete and granular Ethereum Metropolis blockchain network data from October 17, 2017 to January 1, 2020 drawn from the 200 highest activity contracts, this dissertation empirically examines the relation of the five network properties on platform activity growth. The results show nuanced support for network organization increasing activity growth. This dissertation lays the groundwork for a network dynamic platform paradigm and has the potential to significantly guide both platform theory and practice. The dynamic, activity-oriented, network perspective put forth here directly challenges the static, size-fixated, black box approach dominating the current platforms literature. This dissertation demonstrates that the ways in which platform activity are organized impacts activity growth. Future research should re-evaluate assumptions around platform network size and incorporate activity dynamics. Practical implications follow accordingly: managers should focus on activity organization (i.e., quality) and re-evaluate the “get big fast” (i.e., quantity) prescription directing the platform management discourse for the past two decades.

Text

2023-07-21

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85294

Business Administration - Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/