Objectives of platform research: A co-citation and systematic literature review analysis

TL;DR

This paper systematically reviews business economics research on digital platforms, identifying key research objectives, fields, and future directions to address conceptual ambiguities and enhance understanding of platform ecosystems.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive bibliometric and qualitative analysis of platform research, clarifying primary objectives and proposing future research directions in business economics.

Findings

Identified 14 research fields related to platforms

Three primary research objectives in platform ecosystems

Suggested future research directions for business economics

Abstract

Business economics research on digital platforms often overlooks existing knowledge from other fields of research leading to conceptual ambiguity and inconsistent findings. To reduce these restrictions and foster the utilization of the extensive body of literature, we apply a mixed methods design to summarize the key findings of scientific platform research. Our bibliometric analysis identifies 14 platform-related research fields. Conducting a systematic qualitative content analysis, we identify three primary research objectives related to platform ecosystems: (1) general literature defining and unifying research on platforms; (2) exploitation of platform and ecosystem strategies; (3) improvement of platforms and ecosystems. Finally, we discuss the identified insights from a business economics perspective and present promising future research directions that could enhance business economics and management research on digital platforms and platform ecosystems.