Research and prospects of platform empowerment theory from the perspective of digital business ecosystems

Platforms facilitate the linkage, sharing, and innovation of various subjects in the digital business ecosystem through enabling activities. However, a comprehensive theoretical framework for platform enablement research has not yet been established. This study utilizes CiteSpace software to visualize and analyze the literature on platform empowerment in CNKI and Web of Science. In constructing an integrated theoretical framework of value nodes, value chains, and value networks, the entry perspective is the digital business ecosystem. In the digital business ecosystem, platform empowerment activities create value for enterprises, individual users, government, and other subjects. Value creation in the value chain depends on the resource flow and activity linkage of the data chain, commodity chain, and innovation chain. The operation of the value network can promote the formation of the 'virtual industrial agglomeration' to some extent. This study aims to develop an integrated framework for platform empowerment theory. It proposes potential research directions for platform heterogeneity, cross-boundary value co-creation, and virtual industrial agglomeration in the future.