Digital Platform Ecosystem Performance: Antecedents and Interrelations

The success of many of the world’s most valuable companies is based on digital platform ecosystems (DPEs). Their performance depends on integrating autonomous, individually incentivized but highly entangled actors using digital platforms to cocreate values. Extant research uses numerous dependent variables to measure the performance of different actors in isolation. These variables are often limited to the (economic) gains of single actors, where an interconnected perspective on the performance of the whole DPE is lacking. This study extracts all variables and causal links from 132 empirical articles in top information system, management, and economic outlets and aggregates them into ten interconnected antecedents of DPE performance, namely: Heterogeneity, Competition, Engagement, Governance, Quality, Network Size, Generativity, Architecture, Cost, and Motivation/Satisfaction. Based on a nomological network, we contribute an understanding of DPE performance as an interrelated, sociotechnical, and dynamic construct. Our findings aim to support practitioners in effectively navigating and steering their DPEs.