Leveraging Ambidexterity in a Digital Platform Ecosystem: Insights from a Complementor’s Perspective

Abstract

This case study explores ambidextrous practices of a complementor firm within a Microsoft-owned digital platform ecosystem (DPE). We draw on organizational ambidexterity and social mechanisms as lenses to analyze how a complementor deals with paradoxical practices of exploration and exploitation in the context of a DPE. By identifying deep structures and surface structures and their related social mechanisms we shed light on the role of ambidextrous complementors in a DPE. Our analysis implies that the identified social mechanisms illustrate how the complementor creates new ideas with other DPE actors to nurture capability development (exploration) and how these ideas are transformed into practice (exploitation). In addition, our findings imply that the complementor’s support of a platform contributes to an increased commitment to the platform owner.