Mechanisms for Designing Digital Platforms: Promoting Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness

Digital platforms (DPs) are an essential technology to enable the sharing and exchanging of services and resources. As an increasing number of industries is disrupted by DPs, scholars and practitioners seek understanding on how to design and govern successful DPs. Currently, platform owners predominantly rely on mechanisms that serve their goal of attracting and retaining users. But, the call to address the user's well-being is becoming more important. In this regard, self-determination theory (SDT) offers a promising lens to assess mechanisms that foster well-being. Therefore, we conducted expert interviews of 24 two-sided B2C and B2B DPs, to gain insights into what mechanisms they employ to build successful DPs. Overall, we identified 13 mechanisms to inform the design of DPs. Additionally, we analyzed how these mechanisms could promote three fundamental constructs of SDT: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Our findings provide scholars and practitioners with actionable knowledge to advance their DP endeavors.