The digital economy has brought about multi-sided platforms as superior configurations for value co-creation. However, the academic discourse on platforms is scattered across academic disciplines—including management, information systems, and economics. Based on a systematic literature review of 140 papers from nine disciplines, we inductively develop a framework that provides a conceptual point of reference for conducting boundary-spanning research on digital multi-sided platforms. Systematizing the identified concepts, we introduce three layers of abstraction: conceptualizing platforms as information systems, as systems for actor engagement, or as ecosystems. Our framework conceptualizes digital multi-sided platforms as nested hierarchies of systems that are shaped by, and in interaction with, their environment. This view focuses on designing IT artifacts, governance mechanisms, and strategies for platforms in terms of how they interact with their environment. Practitioners can use our insights to analyze, design, and manage platforms aimed at establishing a sustainable competitive advantage.

Online review system designers implement different design features to nudge their systems' users towards behaving in a certain way, e.g., by providing review templates to influence the content of reviews. Most of these measures apply to all users equally and do not take the individual reviewers' personality into account. Based on identified gaps within research on online reviews [1], as a first step to close one of these gaps, we present an exploratory study that reveals the relationship between personality traits and reviewing behavior. We analyze a comprehensive dataset of restaurant reviews from Yelp and determine the Big Five personality traits of each reviewer using IBM Watson. Amongst others, our results suggest that reviewers, who are rather extroverted, are less likely to write long reviews. These insights emphasize that design features should be developed with the reviewers' personality in mind and thus bear potential for future research.

Einige digitale Plattformanbieter wie Apple, Google oder Facebook realisieren im Konsumgüterbereich beispiellose Wettbewerbsvorteile. Auch produzierende Unternehmen erkennen zunehmend das Potenzial, ihren Kunden neben physischen Produkten plattformbasierte Dienstleistungen anzubieten. Dies verlangt jedoch eine deutliche Veränderung des Geschäftsmodells: Als Plattformanbieter tritt das Unternehmen nicht mehr allein als Lösungsanbieter auf, sondern bündelt das Leistungsangebot vieler Unternehmen für seine Kunden. Dieser Artikel beschreibt drei Strategien, mit denen produzierende Unternehmen ihren Weg in die Plattformökonomie ausgestalten können. Ausgehend von der Annahme, dass das Unternehmen bereits als Lösungsanbieter auftritt, stellen wir diese Strategien vor und benennen konkrete Anwendungsbeispiele, die eine Formulierung eigener Strategien inspirieren können.