Thursday 26 October
Mark de Reuver (Associate Professor at TU Delft & Adjunct Associate Professor at TEM): "Open Platforms for Internet-of-Things Businesses". In room E306 (Evry) between 12:30 & 13:30.
Open platforms are producing huge economic and societal value by enabling third parties to develop value-adding applications. For instance, open platforms from Apple and Google created a whole new app economy. Yet, in the Internet-of-Things (IoT) world, most platforms are still closed. For instance, most IoT platforms for smart homes offer services from one device provider only. Without open platforms, service providers cannot offer value-adding IoT applications. And without applications, IoT will soon become a `fad’, and fail to deliver its potential economic and societal value. Why businesses open up their platforms is an emerging topic in information sciences. However, literature on platforms is fragmented and largely based on studying software platforms. IoT platforms are fundamentally different as they mediate between the digital world of `apps’ and physical world of `things’. This digital-physical intertwinement raises novel openness risks relating to safety, privacy and competitiveness. I will present a personal grant proposal. My goal is to develop and test theory on factors affecting openness of IoT platforms towards application providers, other platform providers and device providers. I will do so through mixed-methods research: (1) six comparative longitudinal case studies and (2) three waves of longitudinal survey research using structural equation modelling with growth curve models. I will integrate my empirical findings with factors affecting openness from existing literature. My results will provide recommendations for IoT providers on trade-offs when opening up their platforms. The project will lay the foundation for new research programs in the information (system) sciences on the emerging phenomenon of cyber-physical platforms, i.e. platforms with digital and physical components.