Exploring the platformization dilemma: How manufacturers leverage digital platforms for service business model innovation
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Recent research has highlighted the growing significance of digital platforms in manufacturing, particularly in driving service business model innovation (BMI). However, research gaps persist in understanding how a manufacturer's platform business configuration as well as its platform experience influence its service BMI capability. This paper addresses these gaps by using the digital platform capability approach as a theoretical framework and introducing the concept of digital platform experience. To conduct our study, we first derive hypotheses from literature and test them in a cross-sectional, three-stage empirical analysis using descriptive, bivariate and multivariate regression analysis. For this purpose, we use the German Manufacturing Survey , a representative, large-scale firm-level database, which encompasses 1334 firms from the German manufacturing sector. Our findings reveal that digital platforms play a central yet ambivalent role – depending on experience and configuration – in manufacturers' service BMI. Overall, moving into the platform business generally triggers service BMI. However, these effects are mostly confined to product-related BMI, while customer-oriented models are only enabled through more complex platform configurations. Notably, these positive innovation effects tend to be short-lived: in the long run, innovation dynamics slow down considerably, and manufacturers may face what we refer to as the “platformization dilemma.”
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,490
OpenAlex ID: W7221782905