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The Boundaries of the Platform: Vertical Integration and Economic Incentives in Mobile Computing

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  • Boudreau, Kevin

Abstract

Research on the organization of systems industries generally takes the boundaries of platforms to be exogenously-determined artifacts, given by the nature of technology. This paper studies whether platform boundaries are responsive to economic incentives by studying variation in platform boundaries in competing systems in mobile computing. Using detailed descriptive evidence and systematically collected databases of integration patterns, I find that platform boundaries in this industry could be understood as established in response to three primary goals: 1) to consolidate control around assets that conferred the power to regulate production in the system as a whole; 2) to integrate economic activities that risked coordination problems; 3) to open platform boundaries in response to interactions with market competition.

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  • Boudreau, Kevin, 2006. "The Boundaries of the Platform: Vertical Integration and Economic Incentives in Mobile Computing," Working papers 30609, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:mit:sloanp:30609
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    Cited by:

    1. Karippacheril, Tina George & Nikayin, Fatemeh & de Reuver, Mark & Bouwman, Harry, 2013. "Serving the poor: Multisided mobile service platforms, openness, competition, collaboration and the struggle for leadership," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 24-34.
    2. Pieter Ballon & Nils Walravens & Antonietta Spedalieri & Claudio Venezia, 2010. "The Reconfiguration of Mobile Service Provision: Towards Platform Business Models," Chapters, in: Morten Falch & Jan Markendahl (ed.), Promoting New Telecom Infrastructures, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Ansari, Shahzad & Garud, Raghu, 2009. "Inter-generational transitions in socio-technical systems: The case of mobile communications," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 382-392, March.

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    Keywords

    Platforms; systems competition; vertical integration; theory of the firm; information technology;
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