Platform Thinking in Incumbent Firms: From Concept to Capability

Abstract

Incumbent firms struggle with new forms of competition in today’s increasingly digital environments. To leverage the benefits of innovation ecosystems they often shift focus from products to platforms. However, existing research provides limited insight into how firms actually implement this shift. Addressing this void, we have conducted a comparative case study where we adopt the concept of platform thinking to comprehend what capabilities incumbents need when engaging in innovation ecosystems and how those capabilities are developed.