Building digital platform ecosystems: A synthetization of fundamental design topics from a literature review

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing body of research on digital platforms by adopting an ecosystem perspective and considering an established framework. Through our work, we synthesize previous findings related to digital platforms and provide new insights into their ecosystem...

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Main Authors: Thomas Goertler, Marcel Papert, Isabel Fischer, Malou Schmidt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-06-01
Series:Digital Business
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666954425000043
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author Thomas Goertler
Marcel Papert
Isabel Fischer
Malou Schmidt
author_facet Thomas Goertler
Marcel Papert
Isabel Fischer
Malou Schmidt
author_sort Thomas Goertler
collection DOAJ
description The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing body of research on digital platforms by adopting an ecosystem perspective and considering an established framework. Through our work, we synthesize previous findings related to digital platforms and provide new insights into their ecosystem design. To achieve this, we conducted a comprehensive literature review to identify and synthesize relevant findings. Using this framework, we conducted a qualitative content analysis that allowed us to derive design recommendations and aggregate related design themes from the reviewed publications. The results of our study reveal a detailed framework that includes various design topics tailored to different stakeholders within the platform ecosystem. In practical terms, our findings provide valuable guidance to practitioners to help them make informed design and resource allocation decisions in the context of complex transformation projects. The identified themes synthesize the activities necessary to develop a platform's ecosystem and can be viewed as a basic design framework. This framework can serve as a playbook for practitioners seeking to navigate digital transformation processes toward platform-based models. Given the critical role of platform design in both academic and practical domains, this study aims to synthesize existing research on digital platforms and offer a framework that considers possible design topics from a business ecosystem perspective. This contribution is particularly important given the growing importance of platform ecosystems in today's digital economy.
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spelling doaj-art-530d12ab34b4483bb8f867b3eee892042025-02-09T05:01:37ZengElsevierDigital Business2666-95442025-06-0151100109Building digital platform ecosystems: A synthetization of fundamental design topics from a literature reviewThomas Goertler0Marcel Papert1Isabel Fischer2Malou Schmidt3Corresponding author.; University of Bamberg, Chair for Supply Chain Management, 96052 Bamberg, GermanyUniversity of Bamberg, Chair for Supply Chain Management, 96052 Bamberg, GermanyUniversity of Bamberg, Chair for Supply Chain Management, 96052 Bamberg, GermanyUniversity of Bamberg, Chair for Supply Chain Management, 96052 Bamberg, GermanyThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing body of research on digital platforms by adopting an ecosystem perspective and considering an established framework. Through our work, we synthesize previous findings related to digital platforms and provide new insights into their ecosystem design. To achieve this, we conducted a comprehensive literature review to identify and synthesize relevant findings. Using this framework, we conducted a qualitative content analysis that allowed us to derive design recommendations and aggregate related design themes from the reviewed publications. The results of our study reveal a detailed framework that includes various design topics tailored to different stakeholders within the platform ecosystem. In practical terms, our findings provide valuable guidance to practitioners to help them make informed design and resource allocation decisions in the context of complex transformation projects. The identified themes synthesize the activities necessary to develop a platform's ecosystem and can be viewed as a basic design framework. This framework can serve as a playbook for practitioners seeking to navigate digital transformation processes toward platform-based models. Given the critical role of platform design in both academic and practical domains, this study aims to synthesize existing research on digital platforms and offer a framework that considers possible design topics from a business ecosystem perspective. This contribution is particularly important given the growing importance of platform ecosystems in today's digital economy.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666954425000043DigitalizationDigital platformEcosystem designSupply chainLiterature review
spellingShingle Thomas Goertler
Marcel Papert
Isabel Fischer
Malou Schmidt
Building digital platform ecosystems: A synthetization of fundamental design topics from a literature review
Digital Business
Digitalization
Digital platform
Ecosystem design
Supply chain
Literature review
title Building digital platform ecosystems: A synthetization of fundamental design topics from a literature review
title_full Building digital platform ecosystems: A synthetization of fundamental design topics from a literature review
title_fullStr Building digital platform ecosystems: A synthetization of fundamental design topics from a literature review
title_full_unstemmed Building digital platform ecosystems: A synthetization of fundamental design topics from a literature review
title_short Building digital platform ecosystems: A synthetization of fundamental design topics from a literature review
title_sort building digital platform ecosystems a synthetization of fundamental design topics from a literature review
topic Digitalization
Digital platform
Ecosystem design
Supply chain
Literature review
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666954425000043
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AT isabelfischer buildingdigitalplatformecosystemsasynthetizationoffundamentaldesigntopicsfromaliteraturereview
AT malouschmidt buildingdigitalplatformecosystemsasynthetizationoffundamentaldesigntopicsfromaliteraturereview