Introducing Platforms: A Transdisciplinary Journal on Platform Management, Services and Policy and All Related Research

The rise of the platform is one of the three iconic events of the "digital revolution" [1], and has changed people's lives and ways of thinking. Platforms are based on an ethical and economic vision. From an economic viewpoint, platforms intend to improve the efficiency of systems by pooling resources, increasing information and improving transparency in the market. From an ethical perspective, platforms encourage collaboration, sharing and cooperation as new economic and societal values. The creation of wealth has become central for humans and needs to consider sustainability. Platforms can increase the gains of society overall and those of each of its components. However, there is no universal definition of platforms or consensus on how to classify them. This is reflected in the plethora of terms for identical or similar concepts: "platform economy", "collaborative economy", "sharing economy", "gig economy", "on-demand economy", "peer economy", etc. These are the supposed business models created by digital platforms. This lack of a clear definition, combined with the lack of data, not only makes it difficult to grasp platform economy, but also complicates policymaking in this domain. The concept of a "platform" is often used to describe either the foundations upon which software products are built, or the digital infrastructures that facilitate valuable interactions between participants (often in the form of marketplace businesses such as eBay, or social networks such as Twitter). A platform is an intermediary for the realization of exchanges between participants, and most major technology companies can be regarded as platform-based enterprises [2]. Kenny and Zysman [3] call "platform economy", or "digital platform economy", a more neutral term. They say it encompasses the growing number of digital activities in business, politics, and social media, with a "platform" simply referring to a set of online digital arrangements with algorithms organizing and structuring economic and social activity. This journal aims to understand the dynamics of worldwide platformization of the economy. Scientific observation and analysis of the trends and dynamics of platforms are of increasing interest to researchers, policymakers and managers. In the interest of covering several dimensions, the journal will include at least three sections; we hope that these will be extended by our research community and attract a large audience.