| The booming digital economy is the leading force of the global economy and the new engine of economic recovery in the post-epidemic era.In the context of the digital economy,platform firms,as important micro-subjects,have created significant value for society with their strong innovation capacity,bearing capacity and expansion capacity.They are an important force in promoting high-quality economic development.Platformization has become a prominent feature of contemporary organizations.However,the development of the platform redefines the business model.In particular,the locus of platform firms’ value creation follows an externalization logic,fundamentally changing how platform enterprises obtain competitive advantages in the market.Therefore,the issue of how platform enterprises acquire and maintain competitive advantages in a fiercely competitive environment has received extensive attention.Platform companies,as a new organizational form different from traditional companies,often act as a medium to connect various market participants,making the value creation that relies on external relationships more critical in platform firms.Therefore,scholars have begun to emphasize the significance of symbiosis between platform companies and complementors.The platform ecosystem theory points out that the participants in the platform ecosystem are interdependent and complementary in terms of business processes,resources and information and can achieve value cocreation by promoting symbiosis among them.However,there needs to be a complete explain the symbiosis between platform enterprises and their complementors and how symbiosis affects the sustainable development of platform companies.Therefore,this study focuses on the symbiosis between the platform firms and complementors and analyzes the impact of symbiosis on the platform enterprise’s competitive advantage.According to the dynamic capability theory,sustainable competitive advantage in a changing environment comes from the dynamic adjustment or reconfiguration of the combination of enterprise resources and capabilities.Resource orchestration provides comprehensive process guidance for this.However,the issues of how platform enterprises manage resources gathered on the platform to maximize their effectiveness and the role of resource orchestration between symbiosis and competitive advantage in the background of the platform ecosystem have yet to be fully explored.In addition,the hierarchical view of dynamic capability theory also points out that dynamic capability is the foundation of improvisation capability,and improving it can help enterprises maintain and enhance their competitive advantage in highly turbulent environments.However,research on the improvisation capability of platform enterprises still needs to be completed.Accordingly,combining the platform ecosystem theory and the dynamic capability theory,this paper further clarifies the process mechanism of how platform enterprises rely on the symbiotic relationship with complementors to achieve competitive advantage by revealing and verifying the mediating role of resource orchestration and improvisation capability.Furthermore,platform openness,as a vital context factor in the platform ecosystem,has an important impact on platform complementors’ participation and the platform ecosystem’s development.Platform openness may also make the platform ecosystem face the risk of fragmented development,increasing the uncertainty of platform enterprises in governing the platform ecosystem.Although scholars have carried out many discussions on the platform openness paradox issue,few studies have linked platform openness to the competitive advantage of platform enterprises.Therefore,this paper examines the impact of platform openness on the achievement process of competitive advantage in platform enterprises by proposing the moderating role of platform openness in the relationship between symbiosis,resource orchestration,improvisation capability and competitive advantage.Based on platform ecosystem theory,resource-based view and dynamic capability theory,this paper investigates the positive impact of symbiosis on the competitive advantage of platform firms.It analyzes the mediating role of resource orchestration and improvisation capability and the moderating role of platform openness.The main research contents include: Firstly,systemically review existing research on the relevant variables.Secondly,through the exploratory multi-case study,explore the specific path of symbiosis’ s impact on platform enterprises’ competitive advantage and build a research model.Third,propose research hypotheses based on case exploration;Fourth,through empirical research design,data collection and empirical analysis to complete the empirical research,then analyze and discuss the empirical results.Fifth,summarize this study’s findings,innovation,management implications,limitations,and future research directions.This paper’s innovations and theoretical contributions are as follows: Firstly,it profoundly analyzes the connotation,dimension and measurement of symbiosis,laying the foundation for quantitative research on the symbiosis of platform enterprises within the platform ecosystem.Consequently,it enriches the platform ecosystem theory from the symbiosis perspective.Secondly,combining the platform ecosystem theory with dynamic capabilities theory reveals the endogenous and exogenous influencing factors of the platform enterprise’s competitive advantage,which open the black box of the formation mechanism of the platform enterprise’s competitive advantage from multiple theories and paths and provides a theoretical basis for platform enterprises to build competitive advantages.Last,put resource orchestration,improvisation capability and platform openness in one framework to dissect the boundary of enhancing the competitive advantage of platform companies.These results enrich the research context of the dynamic capability theory,innovatively verify and expand the hierarchical view of the dynamic capability theory,and deepen the understanding of the dynamic capability theory. |
