Platform Adoption Strategies for Business-to-Business Firms

Motivated by a lack of research on the emergence and adoption of digital platforms in business-to-business (B2B) contexts, this research-in-progress investigates how organisations navigate this crucial entry point into the platform economy. Acknowledging that well-researched principles and concepts from the business-to-consumer (B2C) realm cannot be perfectly transferred to the B2B context, this study utilises a grounded theory approach to derive platform adoption strategies from empirical data. We propose two constraints (need for neutrality / need for external resources), which result in four distinct types of digital platform entry strategies, i.e., business model re-positioning, joint venture, start-up, and interest group. The characteristics partly confirm prior research, but also provide new insights for further investigation.