Growth, Complexity, and Generativity of Digital Platforms: The Case of Otto.de

Daniel Fürstenau; Hannes Rothe; Abayomi Baiyere; Matthias Schulte-Althoff; Dieter Masak; Kai Schewina; Daria Anisimova

Growth, Complexity, and Generativity of Digital Platforms: The Case of Otto.de

Daniel Fürstenau, Hannes Rothe, Abayomi Baiyere, Matthias Schulte-Althoff, Dieter Masak, Kai Schewina, Daria Anisimova

Department of Digitalization

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

Abstract

We study the growth, complexity, and generativity of a digital platform—Otto.de. Through a longitudinal analysis of the company’s 65 GitHub open source repositories over a period of 6.5 years, we find a) support for a superlinear growth pattern, b) a structural split in the platform into two clusters, and c) indication that more active repositories will be more generative and in turn more popular. These findings have implications for scholars studying platform evolution as well as for companies opening up their internal IT platforms.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS)
Editors	Helmut Krcmar, Jane Fedorowicz, Wai Fong Boh, Jan Marco Leimeister, Sunil Wattal
Number of pages	16
Place of Publication	Atlanta, GA
Publisher	Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)
Publication date	2019
Article number	2781
ISBN (Electronic)	9780996683197
Publication status	Published - 2019
Event	40th International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2019: Information Systems - The Heart of Innovation Ecosystems - International Congress Center Munich (ICM), Munich, Germany Duration: 15 Dec 2019 → 18 Dec 2019 Conference number: 40 https://icis2019.aisconferences.org/

Conference

Conference	40th International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2019
Number	40
Location	International Congress Center Munich (ICM)
Country/Territory	Germany
City	Munich
Period	15/12/2019 → 18/12/2019
Internet address	https://icis2019.aisconferences.org/

Series	Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems
ISSN	0000-0033

Keywords

Digital platforms
Growth
Complexity
Generativity
Platform evolution

Access to Document

http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1582&context=icis2019Licence: Unspecified

Handle.net

Persistent link

Cite this

Fürstenau, D., Rothe, H., Baiyere, A., Schulte-Althoff, M., Masak, D., Schewina, K., & Anisimova, D. (2019). Growth, Complexity, and Generativity of Digital Platforms: The Case of Otto.de. In H. Krcmar, J. Fedorowicz, W. F. Boh, J. M. Leimeister, & S. Wattal (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) Article 2781 Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1582&context=icis2019

Fürstenau, Daniel ; Rothe, Hannes ; Baiyere, Abayomi et al. / Growth, Complexity, and Generativity of Digital Platforms : The Case of Otto.de. Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). editor / Helmut Krcmar ; Jane Fedorowicz ; Wai Fong Boh ; Jan Marco Leimeister ; Sunil Wattal. Atlanta, GA : Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL), 2019. (Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems).

@inproceedings{8bd69db72d2c4dfeb036edc6f1b05b93,

title = "Growth, Complexity, and Generativity of Digital Platforms: The Case of Otto.de",

abstract = "We study the growth, complexity, and generativity of a digital platform—Otto.de. Through a longitudinal analysis of the company{\textquoteright}s 65 GitHub open source repositories over a period of 6.5 years, we find a) support for a superlinear growth pattern, b) a structural split in the platform into two clusters, and c) indication that more active repositories will be more generative and in turn more popular. These findings have implications for scholars studying platform evolution as well as for companies opening up their internal IT platforms.",

keywords = "Digital platforms, Growth, Complexity, Generativity, Platform evolution, Digital platforms, Growth, Complexity, Generativity, Platform evolution",

author = "Daniel F{\"u}rstenau and Hannes Rothe and Abayomi Baiyere and Matthias Schulte-Althoff and Dieter Masak and Kai Schewina and Daria Anisimova",

year = "2019",

language = "English",

series = "Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems",

editor = "Helmut Krcmar and Jane Fedorowicz and Boh, {Wai Fong} and Leimeister, {Jan Marco} and Sunil Wattal",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS)",

publisher = "Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)",

note = "40th International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2019 ; Conference date: 15-12-2019 Through 18-12-2019",

url = "https://icis2019.aisconferences.org/",

}

Fürstenau, D, Rothe, H, Baiyere, A, Schulte-Althoff, M, Masak, D, Schewina, K & Anisimova, D 2019, Growth, Complexity, and Generativity of Digital Platforms: The Case of Otto.de. in H Krcmar, J Fedorowicz, WF Boh, JM Leimeister & S Wattal (eds), Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS)., 2781, Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL), Atlanta, GA, Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems, 40th International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2019, Munich, Bavaria, Germany, 15/12/2019. <http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1582&context=icis2019>

Growth, Complexity, and Generativity of Digital Platforms: The Case of Otto.de. / Fürstenau, Daniel; Rothe, Hannes; Baiyere, Abayomi et al.
Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). ed. / Helmut Krcmar; Jane Fedorowicz; Wai Fong Boh; Jan Marco Leimeister; Sunil Wattal. Atlanta, GA: Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL), 2019. 2781 (Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Growth, Complexity, and Generativity of Digital Platforms

T2 - 40th International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2019

AU - Fürstenau, Daniel

AU - Rothe, Hannes

AU - Baiyere, Abayomi

AU - Schulte-Althoff, Matthias

AU - Masak, Dieter

AU - Schewina, Kai

AU - Anisimova, Daria

N1 - Conference code: 40

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - We study the growth, complexity, and generativity of a digital platform—Otto.de. Through a longitudinal analysis of the company’s 65 GitHub open source repositories over a period of 6.5 years, we find a) support for a superlinear growth pattern, b) a structural split in the platform into two clusters, and c) indication that more active repositories will be more generative and in turn more popular. These findings have implications for scholars studying platform evolution as well as for companies opening up their internal IT platforms.

AB - We study the growth, complexity, and generativity of a digital platform—Otto.de. Through a longitudinal analysis of the company’s 65 GitHub open source repositories over a period of 6.5 years, we find a) support for a superlinear growth pattern, b) a structural split in the platform into two clusters, and c) indication that more active repositories will be more generative and in turn more popular. These findings have implications for scholars studying platform evolution as well as for companies opening up their internal IT platforms.

KW - Digital platforms

KW - Growth

KW - Complexity

KW - Generativity

KW - Platform evolution

KW - Digital platforms

KW - Growth

KW - Complexity

KW - Generativity

KW - Platform evolution

M3 - Article in proceedings

T3 - Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems

BT - Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS)

A2 - Krcmar, Helmut

A2 - Fedorowicz, Jane

A2 - Boh, Wai Fong

A2 - Leimeister, Jan Marco

A2 - Wattal, Sunil

PB - Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)

CY - Atlanta, GA

Y2 - 15 December 2019 through 18 December 2019

ER -

Fürstenau D, Rothe H, Baiyere A, Schulte-Althoff M, Masak D, Schewina K et al. Growth, Complexity, and Generativity of Digital Platforms: The Case of Otto.de. In Krcmar H, Fedorowicz J, Boh WF, Leimeister JM, Wattal S, editors, Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Atlanta, GA: Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). 2019. 2781. (Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems).