Abstract

This study provides a novel perspective on digital platform dynamics by applying a stochastic cellular automaton (CA) as a promising instrument of inquiry to investigate the impact of social and technical openness on platform growth. Owing to the dynamism of digital platforms caused by technological complexity, network effects, and developer-level factors, there is limited under-standing of how early-stage platform owners can successfully sustain platform growth. Research suggests two growth strategies: Adjusting the openness of technical platform resources and gov-erning the developers’ accessibility of the distribution channel. Based on experiments that lev-erage a stochastic CA, we show that platform growth can be achieved through three disparate growth strategy configurations. Our paper contributes to research by synthesizing the technolo-gy, market, and individual levels of platform growth analyses through a novel methodological account, and by offering theoretical propositions for future research. Our results can guide platform owners to scrutinize their growth strategies.

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