"Internet +" Manufacturing Enterprise Platform Ecosystem Construction

In recent years,the digital economy has developed rapidly,and building a platform ecosystem has gradually become an emerging business model.As a strategic choice for enterprises to achieve sustainable development,the construction of platform ecosystem is of great significance to the high-quality development of China’s economy.However,for some "Internet +" manufacturing enterprises,the construction of the platform ecosystem is not achieved overnight,but needs to be continuously optimized and improved,and is often constrained by resource elements such as technology in the construction process.Therefore,"Internet+" manufacturing enterprises must strengthen the upgrading of digital technology,break through the scenario of technical constraints,and gradually build a platform ecosystem for continuous competitive advantage.It can be seen that how "Internet +" manufacturing enterprises gradually build a platform ecosystem through digital technology has become the key point for their survival and development,and what is the specific formation mechanism of "Internet +" manufacturing enterprises to build a platform ecosystem?At present,the research on platform ecosystem in academia is mainly divided into several aspects,such as attribute characteristics,constituent elements,competition or innovation,etc.,and there is a lack of discussion on the construction of platform ecosystem,so there is no reasonable explanation for exploring the dynamic process of enterprise platform ecosystem construction from the perspective of digital empowerment.More importantly,for "Internet +" manufacturing enterprises,building a platform ecosystem urgently needs to solve the thorny problem of digital technology.Digital empowerment emphasizes that "Internet +" manufacturing enterprises should pay attention to system research and development,accelerate the integration of internal and external resources,capabilities and innovation,and form a self-development ecosystem.So,how can "Internet+" manufacturing enterprises build a platform ecosystem through digital empowerment?According to the research question and research objective,this study uses an exploratory longitudinal single case study method.According to the principle of typicality and theoretical sampling,the "Internet +" manufacturing enterprise Century Kaiyuan was selected as the research sample,and a wealth of first-hand and second-hand materials were collected through interviews,field investigations,etc.,and through the coding and analysis of the collected data,the platform ecosystem construction process of each stage of Century Kaiyuan was analyzed in depth from the perspective of digital empowerment,and the process of building the platform ecosystem of "Internet +" manufacturing enterprises from the perspective of digital empowerment was constructed.By constructing a theoretical framework,it is found that "Internet+" manufacturing enterprises face different platform ecosystem construction situations in different states of digital technology development in three periods: the initial stage,the expansion stage and the leadership stage.In the initial stage,"Internet +" manufacturing enterprises are in a state of digital exploration,mainly relying on their own technical genes to build basic systems,single channels,the introduction of digital equipment,the main participants are enterprises and individual users,and the prototype of the micro-level platform ecosystem has emerged.In the expansion stage,enterprises are in a state of rapid digital development,accelerate the speed of digital technology research and development,integrate social resources,strengthen cooperation,improve visibility,and the participation of social designers,well-known enterprises,third-party e-commerce platforms and other participants has made the platform ecosystem at the meso level grow rapidly.In the leadership stage,the enterprise is in a state of digital maturity,the main task is to improve the system,constantly iterative upgrading,and at the same time is committed to reaching a win-win relationship with excellent supply chain enterprises in the industry,making full use of industry capacity resources,and continuously obtaining competitive advantages.The theoretical contributions of this research are mainly reflected in the following three aspects.First,enhance research on the construction mechanism of the "Internet +" manufacturing enterprise platform ecosystem.Second,the study summarizes how "Internet+" manufacturing enterprises choose digital empowerment methods at different stages,and enriches the application scenarios of digital empowerment theory.This paper studies how "Internet +" manufacturing enterprises can help the dynamic process of enterprise development through digital empowerment from the perspective of structural empowerment and resource empowerment,and expands the theory and application scenarios of digital empowerment,which can make up for the limitations of the current research that does not explore the digital empowerment of "Internet +" manufacturing enterprises from the perspective of cases.Third,this study expands the process path of building the platform ecosystem of "Internet +" manufacturing enterprises from the perspective of digital empowerment."Internet+" manufacturing enterprises gradually build a platform ecosystem by choosing different digital empowerment methods,making up for the gap in existing research on the relationship between digital empowerment and platform ecosystem construction.In terms of management enlightenment,this study provides theoretical guidance for "Internet+" manufacturing enterprises to make full use of digital technology.It provides reference for "Internet+" manufacturing enterprises to effectively use digital technology to build platform ecosystems to obtain sustainable competitive advantages,and guides enterprises to identify the characteristics and construction process of platform ecosystems at different stages."Internet +" manufacturing enterprises at different stages according to the development of digitalization,choose digital empowerment methods to improve their digital capabilities,after which "Internet +" manufacturing enterprises will further use system research and development,channel expansion,resource integration,etc.,with the dominant platform enterprises in the system as the center,develop high-quality partnerships,strengthen system strength,and achieve sustainable and healthy development.