Open innovation governance for the Big Tech (BT) platform-ecosystems: a multi-level stakeholder framework

Purpose Silicon Valley Big Tech (BT), representing Alphabet, Apple, Meta and Amazon, wields substantial influence over their platform users, leading to calls for more stringent digital regulation. The purpose of this study is to conceptualize “open innovation governance” for the BT platform ecosystems. This involves the balanced use of both incentives and controls to address stakeholder power imbalances at the corporate (BT senior manager), platform (complementor) and ecosystem (end-users) levels to share ecosystem value. Design/methodology/approach A conceptual review methodology systematically examines various academic articles, books and 10 K annual reports on BT firms. This study dissects the business models of each BT firm while drawing on empirical examples from the high-tech sectors to advance general propositions. This research presents a prescriptive open innovation (OI) governance framework based on the literature synthesis. Findings This research advances a “managerial toolkit” leveraging Objectives and Key Results and Key Performance Indicators tied to specific incentives and controls to enable BT senior managers to generate OIs, complementors to absorb and end-users to disseminate open digital platform-ecosystem value. Originality/value This study has implications for both theory and practice. Theoretically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to conceptualize a prescriptive OI governance framework that BT managers can use to generate shared values. Practically, the conceptual framework has implications for digital policymakers governing BT, representing a middle ground between advocates for breaking up BT platforms and proponents of limited digital regulation.