By Marcus Holgersson
In a new California Management Review paper on platform strategy, with Joakim Björkdahl and David Teece, we try to understand the managerial challenges and solutions when introducing digital platforms into established ecosystems.
Digital platforms are revolutionizing nearly every industry, serving as the backbone for new, emergent ecosystems. But not all platforms start from scratch. Some are introduced into already thriving ecosystems, presenting unique managerial challenges. Unlike creating a new platform ecosystem, introducing a platform into an established one demands careful integration. It requires navigating and evolving within the ecosystem’s dimensions to enhance existing complementarities and interactions. Consider the healthcare sector, where digital platforms must mesh with an intricate web of services, hospitals, professionals, and patients—each a critical part of the ecosystem.
In this paper, we term this integration process “platform grafting,” a concept inspired by biology and medicine. In nature, grafting merges two plants to leverage their strengths. Medically, engraftment involves the body accepting new cells. Analogously, platform grafting weaves a digital platform into an existing ecosystem.
However, platform grafting introduces unique challenges and demands specific managerial responses. We’ve identified hurdles across four key ecosystem dimensions: the actors, tasks, assets, and governance mechanisms. Successful grafting requires integration across these dimensions, and in this paper we start to outline viable approaches for managers to address this challenge.
Read more in the full open access publication in California Management Review: https://doi.org/10.1177/00081256241238453
