Breaking Down the Barriers: Why Digital Platforms Aren’t Thriving in Healthcare

In the rapidly evolving domain of digital entrepreneurship, understanding the multifaceted causes of platform venture failures is crucial. This paper investigates the developmental trajectories of two early-stage German platform ventures in the healthcare sector over a two-year period, employing an ethnographic approach. We conceptualize failure into four distinct types: target (misaligned objectives), technical (technological shortcomings), venture (operational deficiencies), and policy (regulatory barriers). Each category provides insights into the complexities of navigating the challenges, which are decisive for the success of platform ventures in a highly regulated setting. Our preliminary results emphasize the multiple interdependencies between different failure types, with type I and type II failures – while being individually manageable – collectively escalating to type III failures. This is further complicated by ineffective policies (type IV). By conceptualizing failure, our research not only enriches the existing IS literature but also provides valuable insights into the underlying reasons why digital platforms are rarely found in the healthcare sector.