Three terminologies for ecosystems are most commonly used in management, and organization science research, which also divide the field into three broad streams, as found by Jacobides et al. (2018): “business ecosystems”, “innovation ecosystems” and “platform ecosystems”. The three streams differ in their focus of the research but share the common understanding of ecosystems as a group of interdependent, but loosely coupled firms.
Moore defined business ecosystems as companies with “co-evolving capabilities around a new innovation” in a cooperative and at the same time competitive way. This broader definition has since been widely maintained, with Teece defining business ecosystems as “the community of organizations, institutions, and individuals that impact the enterprise and the enterprise’s customers and suppliers”. There is still incertitude as to where exactly the boundary has to be drawn that separates the entities within from that outside of a specific ecosystem. However, this definition also entails that a business ecosystem is constituted relative to a particular firm – with different firms that are not operating in the identical ecosystem even when they are offering similar services or products.
In some of the definitions of business ecosystems, the term “platform” is already mentioned, as in the conceptualization of Autio and Thomas. This already indicates how closely the idea of a platform is related to ecosystems. Ecosystems are the more generic concept, of which platform ecosystems are one typical instantiation: Many ecosystems, such as the Apple iOS ecosystem, have at their core a platform that structures and orchestrates the complementors and partners. The term “platform ecosystem” is likely to be most conventional in IS, shaped, for example, by the work of Tiwana on ecosystems around software platforms. The designation “platform” originates from the product development or engineering disciplines, and has since enjoyed similar popularity as the term “ecosystem”, with further adoption in fields such as (industrial) economics.
A common platform strategy is to use public relations communications and the courts to delay, deny or to deflect public criticism. When confronted with proposed or implemented changes in laws aimed at curtailing platform practices, these companies highlight their commitments to public values.
Modern digital platforms-
Modern digital platforms are distinguished by their use of digital technologies for binding, coordinating, and implementing methods for linking multiple suppliers and consumers or citizens using their data. The dominant market positions achieved by Google, Facebook, Amazon and Twitter are echoed by Tencent, JD.com and Alibaba, Baidu, YouKu and QQ.com, and Weibo in the Chinese market. These developments are widely attributed to the ‘intelligent’ capabilities of machines, market entry by companies that disrupt older ‘single sided’ business models, and the scale of globally distributed end-users of platforms. The platform strategies enable datafication, information circulation and commodification, constituting key elements of ‘platformization’. When the interests of governments and civil society stakeholders in the platform society do not align with the platform’s ambitions, then behavioural and or structural remedies are considered.
The platform companies are continuously seeking to strengthen and diversify their revenue streams by exploiting global, regional and local markets. In the international rule-based system that facilitates trading relationships, they can organize their operations with relatively little regard for national boundaries, although they face specific national constraints in China and, increasingly, in other national jurisdictions.