Gawer (2014)

Question 1

What are platforms?

Answer 1

evolving organizations or meta organizations that
-federate and coordinate constitutive agents who can innovate and compete
-create value by generating and harnessing economies of scope in supply or demand.
-entail a modular architecture composed of core and perphery.

Question 2

what are direct network effects?

Answer 2

When the value of a good to a user increases with the
number of other users (installed base) of the same or similar

Question 3

what are indirect network effects?

Answer 3

The presence of other type of actors (e.g. complementors)
generates additional value

Question 4

What is platform architecture?

Answer 4

A set of core components (and interfaces) with low variety and a complementary set of peripheral components with high variety

Question 5

Explain the economic perspective of platforms

Answer 5

it says that platforms fundamentally create value by acting as conduits between two (or more) categories of consumers who would not have been able to connect or transact without the platform.

Question 6

What are the limitations of economic platforms?

Answer 6

Economics perspective treats each side as a “customer” - innovators and their motivations to innovate is purely transactional.

Question 7

Explain the engineering perspective

Answer 7

The engineering view interprets platforms as purposefully designed technological architectures (including interfaces) that facilitate innovation.

Question 8

what are the advantages of platform architectures?

Answer 8

Reduced cost of production
shared components between models
reduced r and d lead times
reduced systemic complexity
improved ability to update products
customization by combining components.

Question 9

What are disadvantages of platform architectures?

Answer 9

Decreasing distinctiveness
suboptimization