Research on influencing factors of platform leadership in business ecosystem

Purpose - This paper aims to answer the following two questions: What are the affecting factors of platform leadership? How do the business ecosystem and unique attributes of platform enterprises affect the formation of platform leadership? Design/methodology/approach - Based on the niche theory, this study used the grounded theory research methods to explore the strategic behavior of platform enterprises, analyze the characteristics of platform leadership and systematically explore the influencing factors of platform leadership based on four internet platform enterprises and their business ecosystem. Findings - The result shows that the acquisition of platform leadership is closely related to the platform enterprises’ Niche, where they are located in the business ecosystem. Platform enterprises play the roles of the founder, coordinator, leader and arranger in the ecosystem, and there are four affecting factors of platform leadership: architecture foundation, connection and coordination, innovation leading and integrated expansion. The architecture foundation consists of four factors: platform architecture, installation base, intellectual property and network coverage; the connection and coordination contain five factors: interactive collaboration, multilateral user connection, information matching, neutral arbitration and mutualism; the innovation leading is composed of four factors: research and development investment, common components, complementary innovation, cross-border search and standard-setting; the integrated expansion includes resource orchestration, modular design, data collaboration, supportive enabling and scenario application. Originality/value - This research constructs a framework of platform leadership with the influencing factors.