Tight and Loose Coupling in Evolving Platform Ecosystems: The Cases of Airbnb and Uber

The emergence of digital platforms changes the way how companies interact with their ecosystem. Successful platforms like Apple’s App Store utilize an ecosys-tem of third-party developers to drive innovation. Those platforms are expanding the sphere of influence beyond internal resources and capabilities by taking ad-vantage of a scalable ecosystem of external developers. However, until now it is unclear on how those companies establish a platform ecosystem. This article draws on two case studies in the form of ridesharing and accommodation plat-forms to illustrate how they transitioned through four evolutionary phases with the help of tight and loose coupling partnerships.     «

The emergence of digital platforms changes the way how companies interact with their ecosystem. Successful platforms like Apple’s App Store utilize an ecosys-tem of third-party developers to drive innovation. Those platforms are expanding the sphere of influence beyond internal resources and capabilities by taking ad-vantage of a scalable ecosystem of external developers. However, until now it is unclear on how those companies establish a platform ecosystem. This article draws on two case studie...     »