Platform-based Innovation Management: Directing External Innovational Efforts in Platform Ecosystems

Modular platforms have become the centerpiece of collaborative value creation in platform ecosystems. Platform ecosystems co-create the platform's value proposition and support its market adoption as the more complementors join the ecosystem to supply complementarities, the more valuable the platform becomes to consumers due to a greater variety of choice. This poses new requirements on managing innovation in open platform environments. While academic research stresses the relevance of external complementary innovation for platform success, it lacks, however, a concrete understanding to guide platform owners in directing external innovational efforts in coopetive platform ecosystems to co-create and deliver value while ensuring the overall quality, reliability and consistency of the 'whole' solution. Based on the challenges platform ecosystems place on innovation management, this paper explores and categorizes control mechanisms leading platform owners in the ICT industry have implemented to steer external complementary innovation efforts. From that an overall platform-based innovation management process is developed.