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korean management review - Vol. 53 , No. 1
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korean management review - Vol. 53, No. 1, pp. 27-56
Abbreviation: kmr
ISSN: 1226-1874 (Print)
Print publication date 28 Feb 2024
Received 03 Aug 2023 Revised 24 Oct 2023 Accepted 17 Nov 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2024.53.1.27

Analysis of Typology and Evolutionary Trajectory of the Digital Platform
Miri Kim ; Sangyoo Kim ; Soo Hyun Park ; Byoung-Chun Ha ; Kilsun Kim
(First Author) Metaverse Platform Service Management Research Center of Sogang Business Research Institute (mirikim@sogang.ac.kr)
(Co-Author) Metaverse Platform Service Management Research Center of Sogang Business Research Institute (sykim1111@sogang.ac.kr)
(Co-Author) Metaverse Platform Service Management Research Center of Sogang Business Research Institute (soohyun08@sogang.ac.kr)
(Co-Author) Metaverse Platform Service Management Research Center of Sogang Business Research Institute (habc@sogang.ac.kr)
(Co-Author) Metaverse Platform Service Management Research Center of Sogang Business Research Institute (kilsunkim@sogang.ac.kr)

디지털 플랫폼 기업의 유형 분류 및 진화 경로 분석

Copyright 2024 THE KOREAN ACADEMIC SOCIETY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Funding Information ▼
Abstract

This study presents a classification framework to understand digital platform firms from the technological- social system perspective and analyzes the typology of their evolutionary trajectory. The typology framework for the evolutionary trajectory of the digital platform firm is developed from two criteria: the platform firms provide “what(online goods vs. offline goods)” and “how(connective leverage vs. innovative leverage)” to platform users. To examine the evolution of platform firms, we collected information of digital goods released by 35 domestic and international digital platform firms. As a result of the study, we reveal that a digital platform firm gave rise to as a form of (.) or (l) and it can take six types of evolutionary paths for which we symbolize them using 6 Korean alphabets (., l, ㅡ, ㅅ, ㄴ, ㅁ). They are pronounced as ‘jeom’, ‘i’, ‘eu’, ‘siot’, ‘nieun’ and ‘mieum’. There were Netflix, Twitter, Carrot Market, Naver, Musinsa, and Kakao as representative firms for each type. The typology framework for digital platform firms proposed in this study enables clear and sophisticated semantic classification and helps understand the evolutionary trajectory as dynamic flows of firm growth.

Keywords: digital platform firms, classification of digital platform firms, evolutionary trajectory
Acknowledgments

This research is supported by Sogang University Research Business Development Research Fund (in 2023).

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∙ The author Miri Kim is currently working as a lecturer at Department of Business Administration at Sogang University. She received her M.S and Ph.D. in Business Administration from Sogang University. Her research interests include management of technology, innovation strategy, and IT service management.

∙ The author Sangyoo Kim is a co-author, currently works at Industrial Bank of Korea in South Korea. She received her Ph.D. in Business Administration from Sogang University. Her research interests include digital platform, platform ecosystem, financial innovation, and service management.

∙ The author Soo Hyun Park is earned a Master's degree in Business Administration from the College of Business at Sogang University, specializing in Global Service Management. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a major in LSOM (Logistics Service Operation Management) at the Graduate School of Sogang University. She is also employed as a lecturer in the Department of Business Administration at Sogang University. Her main areas of teaching and research include technology management and innovation strategies.

∙ The author Byoung-Chun Ha is a Full Professor in Logistics, Service and Operations Management and the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Program at Sogang Business School, Sogang University. He earned his B.A. in Business Administration from Sogang University. He received his MBA and Ph.D. in Logistics and Operations Management from the George Washington University, Washington DC. His research interests are in the fields of logistics, supply chain and operations management.

∙ The author Kilsun Kim is a Professor at Sogang University. Prior to joining Sogang, he taught at Middle Tennessee State University. He received his Ph.D. and MBA degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and BA in Business Administration from Sogang University. His research interests are in management of technology, and product and service innovation.

 
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