Date of Graduation

7-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Information Systems

Advisor/Mentor

Pankaj Setia

Committee Member

Viswanath Venkatesh

Second Committee Member

Jens Foerderer

Third Committee Member

Varun Grover

Keywords

APIs, Complementor Openness, Innovation, Mobile Platform, New Entry, Performance Outcomes, Platform Openness, Spillover

Abstract

Mobile platform ecosystems are hyper-competitive environments. They provide important entrepreneurial opportunities for businesses that develop mobile apps. Platform openness is foundational in mobile platform ecosystems as it enables interactions between complements and platform. Although there are several studies on the impact of platform openness, our understanding of the outcomes of platform openness remains limited. In this dissertation, we examine thoroughly underexplored facets of platform openness as well as understudied outcomes. In the first essay, we investigate the impact of platform openness on incumbent complements’ performance outcomes. We unravel important causal mechanisms related to competition dynamics between new entrants and incumbent complements. In the second essay, we explore the impact of platform competing APIs on incumbent capability-like complements. We shed light on the spillover effects of platform competing APIs across complementors’ portfolio and different platforms. In the third essay, we examine the impact of complementor openness on complementor’s performance and innovation outcomes. We reveal distinct causal mechanisms explaining the effects of complementor openness on complementor’s performance as well as complementor’s innovation outcomes. The three essays provide several theoretical and practical contributions.

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