Building on numerous studies within the DiHP project (see above), I was able to complete my dissertation project. In this context, I focused more intensively on digital platforms in B2B.
In the manufacturing industry, flexibility and resource utilization play a central role in maintaining competitiveness. Interorganizational cooperation between manufacturing companies can help to exploit economies of scope, volume and experience. In addition to various alternatives for coordination between companies, digital platforms can be used to link the market players in the production network. Digital platforms provide the necessary infrastructure and set the conditions for interaction between participants in the production network by integrating data, structures and processes. Among other things, this can lead to increased transparency, flexibility and resilience as well as improved market position and a reduction in costs.
While a manageable number of digital platforms for production networks have been established in practice to date, these platforms or associated institutional arrangements have not yet been studied in depth in academia. There is a lack of comprehensive, systematically developed studies analyzing the platforms in terms of their structure and goals. Only on the basis of a theoretically well-founded frame of reference can viable conclusions be derived, also with regard to design guidelines.
The aim of this study is to specify this research gap on the basis of a comprehensive state-of-the-art analysis and to contribute to closing the research gap. To this end, a structural and target model for digital platforms for production networks are developed. Based on these two conceptual models, 14 different platforms are analyzed. Through a cluster analysis, similarities and differences in the structure of the digital platforms are identified and analyzed based on the resulting four clusters. The target model is applied to conduct a survey of target priorities of platform operators. Based on this, influences of the structural elements on the achievement of goals are elaborated. In summary, recommendations for ideal platform design based on the structure clusters, target priorities and structure-target influences can be derived using four ideal types. The application of the design model is extensively demonstrated and evaluated in two case studies. It could be shown that the ideal-typical design of digital platforms for production networks can contribute significantly to the achievement of various goals.