Prioritizing the Roles of Control Mechanisms in Digital Platform: An Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach
Sandip Mukhopadhyay (IBM India Private Limited)
Shahrokh Nikou (Åbo Akademi University)
Harry Bouwman (TU Delft - Information and Communication Technology, Åbo Akademi University)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Existing literature on control in software development considers only the principal-agency relationship between controller and controlee and this view does not hold true between ecosystems leader and partners, which are independent organizations. This chapter aims to study the critical role played by inter-organizational control mechanisms in the context of mobile platform ecosystems. By utilizing opinions of 38 experts and employing an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach, this chapter identifies and ranks the most important roles played by control mechanisms in digital platform. The findings show that ecosystems´ leaders primarily use control to manage or improve its central position in the network to capture a higher share of value of the service. The findings provide further insights on two other roles of control in platform ecosystems: (1) accessing complementary resources and (2) managing interdependency between partners. This chapter contributes to organizational control theory in the context of emerging platform-based ecosystem.