Platform Development: Emerging Insights From a Nascent Industry

Abstract

This article investigates the emergence and development of the innovation platform in a nascent industry, through a dynamic capabilities perspective. Based on an inductive study of the U.K.’s tele-rehabilitation through gaming (TRTG) industry, we identify four capabilities that are important for successful platform development: innovation leverage, market exploration, quality control, and appropriation. A holistic framework is developed to explain how these capabilities can facilitate platform development by enabling appropriate business models and activities. We then discuss how a firm could define and redefine its firm boundary in order to deploy the four capabilities for platform development.