Ahmad Ghazawneh

Balancing platform control and external contribution in third-party development: the boundary resources model

Prior research documents the significance of using platform boundary resources (e.g. application programming interfaces) for cultivating platform ecosystems through third‐party development. However, there are few, if any, theoretical accounts of this relationship. To this end, this paper proposes a theoretical model that centres on two drivers behind boundary resources design and use – resourcing and securing – and how these drivers interact in third‐party development. We apply the model to a detailed case study of Apples iPhone platform. Our application of the model not only serves as an illustration of its plausibility but also generates insights about the conflicting goals of third‐party development: the maintenance of platform control and the transfer of design capability to third‐party developers. We generate four specialised constructs for understanding the actions taken by stakeholders in third‐party development: self‐resourcing, regulation‐based securing, diversity resourcing and sovereignty securing. Our research extends and complements existing platform literature and contributes new knowledge about an alternative form of system development.

A paradigmatic analysis of digital application marketplaces

This paper offers a paradigmatic analysis of digital application marketplaces for advancing information systems research on digital platforms and ecosystems. We refer to the notion of digital application marketplace, colloquially called ‘appstores,’ as a platform component that offers a venue for exchanging applications between developers and end users belonging to a single or multiple ecosystems. Such marketplaces exhibit diversity in features and assumptions, and we propose that examining this diversity, and its ideal types, will help us to further understand the relationship between application marketplaces, platforms, and platform ecosystems. To this end, we generate a typology that distinguishes four kinds of digital application marketplaces: closed, censored, focused, and open marketplaces. The paper also offers implications for actors wishing to make informed decisions about their relationship to a particular digital application marketplace.

The power of platforms for software development in open innovation networks

Firms seeking to satisfy customer needs should not only rely on internal but also external sources of innovations for the development of their products and services. Consequently, they need to shift their centralised business approaches by adopting the paradigm of open innovation and the concept of platforms to harness the value of innovation networks. The aim of this paper is to examine the nature of platforms and how their adoption can stimulate external contributions of third-party developers. Based on the analysis which illustrated three platform adoption examples from Apple, Facebook and Twitter it is found that a platform approach and its four main elements (components, knowledge, processes and people) affect the entire innovation network and its two dimension of translations. It is also found that each of the three firms applied its own particular strategy while adopting the four main platform elements to suit its own innovation networks.

The Role of Platforms and Platform Thinking in Open Innovation Networks

Firms that identify themselves as innovative have to constantly and continuously generate a stream of value-rich products and services, and improve them by time targeting growth markets and finding new ones for their core technologies. To achieve this, they start to open their innovation practices by adopting the open innovation paradigm, giving the opportunity to actors to engage in innovation networks. This paper discusses the supportive roles of platforms and platform thinking concepts in the practices that take place in innovation networks based on the dimensions of translations in such networks. The paper illustrates two practical examples of such roles, exemplifying how platform adopting can enhance and support the innovative practices.

“ It’s About Business not Politics ”: Software Development Between Palestinians and Israelis

This paper focuses on the collaboration in an Israeli-Palestinian tech start-up company. We investigate the strategies enacted by the IT developers for managing the political dynamics and making collaboration possible under the highly challenging political conditions. We found that one of the key strategies was explicitly separating the work domain of software development from the domain of politics. We argue that the IT developers manage to collaborate by displacing the political conflict through strategies of non-confrontation instead of engaging in translating conflicting agendas against each other. By insisting on keeping politics outside of the workspace, the IT developers adopt a strategy of keeping the collaboration together by keeping politics and work apart. However, we found that despite the attempts to manage the sub-group dynamics, politics constantly invade the workspace and challenge the collaboration. Significant resources are invested into managing the regimes of differentiated identity cards, permits, and checkpoints, all of which have consequences on the employees’ freedom or restriction of mobility. Thus, we argue that the IT development domain is inseparable from and deeply dependent upon the political domain.

Objectified Knowledge through Social Media: The Case of a Multinational Technology and Consulting Corporation

The developments of new technologies, new scientific initiatives and a new globalized market are giving rise to new forms of collaboration, referred to as mass collaboration. This phenomenon is mainly derived from communities and self-organization, and is based on Web 2.0 technologies, services and tools. This new form of collaboration and technologies are giving rise of emergent social software platforms ESSPs that are adopted by firms worldwide. The main aim of this research is to understand how firms are using such new technologies and collaborative efforts to assist knowledge sharing to achieve objectified knowledge. Central to this research is the proposed knowledge sharing cycle model, which has three main stages-internalization, externalization, and objectification. This model is adapted based on the findings of a case study of internal social media strategy of IBM Corporation. The findings indicate that ESSPs can be used to support knowledge sharing practices and to help convert knowledge into its different forms in enhancing knowledge acquisition.