Paper ID
3340
Paper Type
full
Description
Understanding complementors’ decisions to multihome, a strategy in which a complementor chooses to join multiple platforms, is important because it influences market-level outcomes such as the probability that markets with network effects will tip. We provide a novel approach to explain multihoming based on “supply-side” features of complementors such as the possession of a diverse set of cospecialized skills which distinguish complementors as generalists. We find that a demand-side opportunity emerging from consolidation of a competing platform has a positive effect on the propensity to multihome, but only when complementors are generalists. While over time complementors learn some of the knowledge that can be leveraged in competing platforms from their existing home-ecosystem, generalists have an additional advantage in multihoming that is subject to path-dependency.
Recommended Citation
Venkataraman, Vijayaraghavan; Ceccagnoli, Marco; and Forman, Chris, "Multihoming within Platform Ecosystems: The Strategic Role of Human Capital" (2019). ICIS 2019 Proceedings. 13.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2019/innov_entre/innov_entre/13
Multihoming within Platform Ecosystems: The Strategic Role of Human Capital
Understanding complementors’ decisions to multihome, a strategy in which a complementor chooses to join multiple platforms, is important because it influences market-level outcomes such as the probability that markets with network effects will tip. We provide a novel approach to explain multihoming based on “supply-side” features of complementors such as the possession of a diverse set of cospecialized skills which distinguish complementors as generalists. We find that a demand-side opportunity emerging from consolidation of a competing platform has a positive effect on the propensity to multihome, but only when complementors are generalists. While over time complementors learn some of the knowledge that can be leveraged in competing platforms from their existing home-ecosystem, generalists have an additional advantage in multihoming that is subject to path-dependency.