Developing a Taxonomy for Digital Platforms – A Conceptual Approach

Abstract

Disruptive companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon transform economic and business activity. Faced with their growing economic importance, digital platforms are increasingly adopting essential functions in business and daily life. Discussions of platforms are extended by decisive aspects accompanying this development. Established economic, social, and organization theory show limitations in understanding and describing digital platforms. Researchers need a sophisticated conceptualization of the complex manifold perspectives to fully understand the dynamics of digital platforms and lead the development of platforms in the proper direction. To enable comparability of research results and uniform theory building, this study analyzes existing literature and conceptually develops a comprehensive taxonomy for digital platforms based on multi-faceted approaches. Our taxonomy consists of technological, economic, and socio-cultural perspectives with sixteen dimensions and corresponding characteristics analyzed in detail, which helps scholars classify and articulate the full range of digital platform specifications.