PhD Defence: Richard Reinsberg

Richard Reinsberg is defending his thesis for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of South-Eastern Norway.

The doctoral work has been carried out at the USN School of Business on the PhD programme in Marketing Management.

• Read the thesis here (link to be published)

Summary

The overall research topic of this dissertation is to understand value creation in digital marketplace platforms from a business model perspective.

While existing research mainly focuses on the focal platform and platform efficiencies, this dissertation investigates the path from value creation to value capture—and the interdependencies between different value concepts—to provide a complementary perspective and a broader understanding of how value is created in a platform business model.

• A key finding from this dissertation is the demonstration of the differences between the platform provider, the complementor, and the customer as the creator of value, and represents a fundamental difference in how we look at value creation in a platform business model compared to a traditional (value chain) business model.
• Another finding is (the identification of) the complexity and interdependency in a platform business model, in which sources of value creation are utilized through a variety of value delivery means or value capture mechanisms—either directly or indirectly.

From these findings, the main contribution of this dissertation is the development of a conceptual framework termed “value logics,” that reflects platform participants’ underlying beliefs about how relationships between value conceptualizations manifest in the business model of a digital marketplace platform.

The framework, which provides four overarching value logics (the scale-driven value logic, the complementor-driven value logic, the scope-driven value logic, and the interaction-driven value logic), is validated among platform managers, customers, and complementors, and demonstrates how marketplace platforms may combine platform-specific value logics with generic value logics in a platform business model.

It also reveals how platform business models include the sharing of beliefs about value creation (value logics) among the different value-creating partners of the ecosystem, not just the focal platform itself, and identifies a potential in utilizing interaction-based value elements to strengthen transaction-based platforms—fueling additional platform growth.

The framework developed in this dissertation thus illustrates how a platform-based business model differs from traditional business models in terms of how value logics support the business model configuration of activities, resources, and capabilities, and provides a more unified view of value creation beyond firm boundaries.

In other words, this dissertation introduces a concept—value logics— that not only accounts for all platform users, but also advances our knowledge of different paths to achieving sustainable competitive advantage of marketplace platforms.