(Academy of Management, 2021-06-26) Kyprianou, Christina; Navis, Chad; https://ror.org/02jjdwm75
Dominant theories of platform governance—focused on innovation platforms and the technical compatibility of platform producers as a value creation imperative—overlook the importance of fostering the relational compatibility of both platform producers and consumers in sharing economy platforms. To address this oversight, we develop a theoretical framework of platform governance that accounts for the unique features and challenges of platform-based value creation in the sharing economy. Our framework is grounded in two essential governance levers shown to have general relevance to platforms: the selection of platform participants and the structuring of platform participant interactions. We build on these foundational levers to develop new theory, and provide examples of the distinct governance practices that sharing economy platforms utilize to ‘pull’ these two levers to opposing levels of intensity to create value. To further demonstrate the usefulness and novelty of our framework, we develop propositions linking attributes of transactions common in the sharing economy to the platform governance approach most suitable for fostering relational compatibility. Our work offers a conceptual foundation for future research interested in developing new knowledge on the heterogenous governance practices of platforms.
