The DOI matches its Crossref record; 66 of the 79 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Platform Governance Design in Platform Ecosystems: Implications for Complementors’ Multihoming Decision
Open accessAbstract
Extant platform research focuses on how platform owners’ governance behaviors directly affect complementors. This study explicates the multilateral interdependence among different groups of producers within a platform ecosystem. We theorize about how platform owners’ governance design may create frictions between platform providers and complementors. While open governance grants greater autonomy to platform providers, it also cultivates a more complex ecosystem for complementors. Since ecosystem complexity raises the cost of product customization, complementors will be less willing to port an existing complement to a more complex ecosystem, that is, less likely to multihome. The negative effect is weakened as the complementor has greater experience with the destination ecosystem or when the complement exhibits a greater level of modularity. Our analysis of newly launched apps in Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android smartphone ecosystems finds supportive evidence. We discuss implications for the burgeoning literature on platform ecosystems and complementors.
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“It has been argued that multihoming between technologically closer platforms can be less costly (Chen et al. 2022;Srinivasan and Venkatraman 2018).”
From Smart Timing for Smart Products? Complementor Multihoming in Nascent Platform Markets (2026) · cites this paper as Chen et al. 2022
In the citing paper
“Studies have shown that the ease with which a complementor multihomes depends on how technologically similar the target platform's architecture is to that of the complementor's current platform(s) (Chen et al. 2022).”
From Smart Timing for Smart Products? Complementor Multihoming in Nascent Platform Markets (2026) · cites this paper as Chen et al. 2022
In the citing paper
“multihoming carries important costs for the complementors (Armstrong and Wright 2007) which tend to increase with the technological distance between platforms and different versions of platform architecture”
From Smart Timing for Smart Products? Complementor Multihoming in Nascent Platform Markets (2026) · cites this paper as Chen et al. 2022
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“Taking up recent calls for greater research attention to complementors (McIntyre & Srinivasan, 2017; Yoo et al., 2012), this study investigates the inhibiting and facilitating factors for complementor multihoming in the context of platform ecosystems.”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Chen, L., Yi, J., Li, S., & Tong, T. W.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Renmin University of China (CN)
- University of South Carolina (US)
- University of Colorado
- Corresponding author
- Yi, Jingtao
- Venue
- Journal of Management
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2021-03-05
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 630-656
- ISSN
- 0149-2063 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-1211
- OpenAlex
- W3114481013
- Cited by
- 177
- References
- 79
- Citations by year
- 2026: 35 · 2025: 48 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 6
- FWCI
- 20.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Management (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Singapore Management University Institutional Knowledge (InK) (Singapore Management University) (submittedVersion)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- The University of Melbourne Early Career Researcher Grant (ECR0182020)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (71873136)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Digital Platforms and Economics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Innovation and Knowledge Management
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Business Strategy and Innovation
- Keywords
- platform governance, platform ecosystems, complementors, multihoming, open governance, ecological complexity, product customization, modularity, iOS, Android
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