Make, Buy, or Join: Evaluating Platform Strategies of Established Companies

• Applicant: Dr. Maximilian Schreieck
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance ; Data Management, Data-Intensive Systems, Computer Science Methods in Business Informatics
• Term: from 2020 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 444990299

Digital platforms are gaining ground in more and more industries. Established companies with traditional, non-platform business models are under pressure to react to platform-based competitors. The taxi industry competes with digital platforms for mobility services such as Uber and established banking companies are at risk to be bypassed by fintech companies that create digital platforms for financial services. We can observe established companies reacting either by building their own digital platform (make strategy), acquiring digital platforms in order to gain a foothold in the competition (buy strategy) or joining an existing platform to benefit from their reach (join strategy). However, success of these strategies is mixed and it remains unclear from literature what strategy is promising under what circumstances. I pose the research question ‘how do different platform strategies (i.e., make, buy, or join) impact the performance of established companies?’In this project, I will conduct a quantitative, industry-level study on the success of different platform strategies of established firms. I will visit the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for this project, given the extensive data access and the leading management research I can collaborate with. Building on existing theories and my previous work, I will develop hypotheses that link different platform strategies to performance. Thereby, I take company- and industry-specific factors into consideration such as the degree of domination by existing digital platforms. I will then collect industry data with regard to financial performance and announcement data to identify the implementation of platform strategies by established companies. Based on this data I will conduct an event study with linear regression analysis and test the hypotheses. With the results, I contribute to ongoing discussions at the interface of management and information systems research by providing generalizable findings on the success of platform strategies. With this project, first, I will be able to diversify my portfolio of research methods. I have worked mainly qualitatively during my dissertation and the project will enhance my skills with regard to quantitative methods. Second, the project will help me to enhance my capabilities to develop theory and to write for top-tier outlets, given my close collaboration with highly-published scholars at the Wharton School. Third, I will strengthen my academic network by connecting with scholars at the Wharton School and by following up on contacts at MIT and Harvard that I initiated during a stay in Boston in 2019. The Wharton School is one of the best business schools in the world both with regard to research and teaching. Thus, besides working with some of the best scholars from the field of management research, visiting the Wharton School will grant me insights into world-class teaching which will be an inspiration for my own teaching style.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Dr. Eric K. Clemons