Dancing titans: Dual orchestration and governance in industrial digital platforms for B2B value co-creation

The digitization of industrial ecosystems positions B2B industrial digital platforms as central to value co-creation and co-capture. While B2C platform governance is well-researched, few studies examine how manufacturing firms and platform providers collaboratively govern digital business models (DBMs) in B2B platform settings. Our study addresses this gap through a multiple case study of five platform providers and five B2B manufacturers, drawing on 33 semi-structured interviews and document analysis. We introduce the concept of dual orchestration—a governance approach in which platform providers and manufacturers jointly assume and adapt orchestration roles across DBM phases. We develop the Platform DBM Process Model (Figure 1), which illustrates how governance dynamics and relational mechanisms – transparency, reciprocity, commitment, proximity, and coopetition - enable dual orchestration through joint role adaptation. We present the Dual Orchestration Governance Framework for Industrial Platform DBMs (Figure 2), integrating DBM phases, relational issues, and governance mechanisms to theorize dual orchestration as a dynamic co-governance process. The study contributes to platform governance theory by specifying the structural and relational features of dual orchestration and by providing an empirically grounded account of its evolution.