IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i5p2279-d1606204.html

Innovation in Platform Ecosystems: Roles of Complementors’ Experiential Knowledge and Community Engagement as an External Knowledge Source

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoxiao Zhou

    (Department of Innovation Science, School of Environment and Society, Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo 108-0023, Japan
    Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Business Administration, Mejiro University, Tokyo 161-8539, Japan)

  • Yuki Inoue

    (Department of Industrial Engineering and Economics, School of Engineering, Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan)

Abstract

Complementors are the source of complementary goods. Increased participation by complementors fosters innovation in complementary goods, contributing to the sustainability of the ecosystem. This study examines how complementors’ experiential knowledge and their engagement with the community as an external knowledge source are correlated with the degree of innovation in complementary goods. A multiple regression analysis was conducted using data from the game mod platform Nexus Mods. Prior evidence indicates an inverted U-shaped relationship between experiential knowledge and the degree of innovation. It is suggested that when experiential knowledge accumulation exceeds an optimal level, further accumulation may lead to a decline in the degree of innovation. This study reveals that when complementors possess a high level of experiential knowledge, the positive relationship between their engagement with the community and the degree of innovation in complementary goods is strengthened. Complementors with abundant experience, who actively engage with the community as an external knowledge source, are more likely to drive innovation. Consequently, they play a crucial role in supporting the sustainable development of the ecosystem.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaoxiao Zhou & Yuki Inoue, 2025. "Innovation in Platform Ecosystems: Roles of Complementors’ Experiential Knowledge and Community Engagement as an External Knowledge Source," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-24, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:5:p:2279-:d:1606204
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/5/2279/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/5/2279/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christophe Boone & Walter Hendriks, 2009. "Top Management Team Diversity and Firm Performance: Moderators of Functional-Background and Locus-of-Control Diversity," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(2), pages 165-180, February.
    2. Ulrich Kaiser & Hans C. Kongsted & Keld Laursen & Ann‐Kathrine Ejsing, 2018. "Experience matters: The role of academic scientist mobility for industrial innovation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(7), pages 1935-1958, July.
    3. Francesco Daveri & Maria Laura Parisi, 2015. "Experience, Innovation, and Productivity," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 68(4), pages 889-915, August.
    4. Hakan Ozalp & Carmelo Cennamo & Annabelle Gawer, 2018. "Disruption in Platform‐Based Ecosystems," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(7), pages 1203-1241, November.
    5. Carmelo Cennamo & Hakan Ozalp & Tobias Kretschmer, 2018. "Platform Architecture and Quality Trade-offs of Multihoming Complements," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 461-478, June.
    6. Gerber, Christine, 2021. "Community building on crowdwork platforms: Autonomy and control of online workers?," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 190-211.
    7. Satish Nambisan & Robert A. Baron, 2013. "Entrepreneurship in Innovation Ecosystems: Entrepreneurs’ Self–Regulatory Processes and Their Implications for New Venture Success," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(5), pages 1071-1097, September.
    8. Johan Wiklund & DEAN Shepherd, 2003. "Knowledge‐based resources, entrepreneurial orientation, and the performance of small and medium‐sized businesses," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(13), pages 1307-1314, December.
    9. Mark Easterby‐Smith & Mary Crossan & Davide Nicolini, 2000. "Organizational Learning: Debates Past, Present And Future," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(6), pages 783-796, September.
    10. Marius Deilen & Manuel Wiesche, 2021. "The Role of Complementors in Platform Ecosystems," Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organization, in: Frederik Ahlemann & Reinhard Schütte & Stefan Stieglitz (ed.), Innovation Through Information Systems, pages 473-488, Springer.
    11. Dziallas, Marisa & Blind, Knut, 2019. "Innovation indicators throughout the innovation process: An extensive literature analysis," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 80, pages 3-29.
    12. Na Wang & Shuangying Chen & Lei Xiao & Feng Fu, 2021. "The Sustainability of Superior Performance of Platform Complementor: Evidence from the Effects of Iterative Innovation and Visibility of App in iOS Platform in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, April.
    13. Xiaoxiao Zhou & Yuki Inoue, 2024. "Performance of complementor’s complementary goods on platform ecosystems: the perspective of individual complementors' complementary goods development behavior," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, December.
    14. Inoue, Yuki, 2021. "Indirect innovation management by platform ecosystem governance and positioning: Toward collective ambidexterity in the ecosystems," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    15. Sharon Belenzon & Mark Schankerman, 2015. "Motivation and sorting of human capital in open innovation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(6), pages 795-820, June.
    16. Ahmad Husairi, Mariyani & Morgan, Robert E. & De Luca, Luigi M., 2021. "Market entry timing: The impact of complementary capabilities on strategic outcomes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 45-55.
    17. Popadiuk, Silvio & Choo, Chun Wei, 2006. "Innovation and knowledge creation: How are these concepts related?," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 302-312.
    18. Ha Hoang & Frank T. Rothaermel, 2010. "Leveraging internal and external experience: exploration, exploitation, and R&D project performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 734-758, July.
    19. Belenzon, Sharon & Schankerman, Mark, 2015. "Motivation and sorting of human capital in open innovation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58514, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bakreski, Filip, 2025. "Population Collapse in Digital Ecosystems (Gaming): Patterns, Causes, and Recovery Strategies," OSF Preprints 56rvh_v1, Center for Open Science.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Silva, Lucas Emmanuel Nascimento & Gomes, Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos & Faria, Aline Mariane de & Borini, Felipe Mendes, 2024. "Innovation processes in ecosystem settings: An integrative framework and future directions," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Qinghua Xia & Qinwei Cao & Manqing Tan, 2020. "Basic research intensity and diversified performance: the moderating role of government support intensity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(1), pages 577-605, October.
    3. Guoli Chen & Sterling Huang & Philipp Meyer‐Doyle & Denisa Mindruta, 2021. "Generalist versus specialist CEOs and acquisitions: Two‐sided matching and the impact of CEO characteristics on firm outcomes," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(6), pages 1184-1214, June.
    4. Inoue, Yuki, 2021. "Indirect innovation management by platform ecosystem governance and positioning: Toward collective ambidexterity in the ecosystems," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    5. Shaphali Gupta, 2020. "Understanding the feasibility and value of grassroots innovation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 941-965, September.
    6. Okpalaoka, Chijindu Iheanacho, 2023. "Research on the digital economy: Developing trends and future directions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    7. Saadatmand, Fatemeh & Lindgren, Rikard & Schultze, Ulrike, 2019. "Configurations of platform organizations: Implications for complementor engagement," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8), pages 1-1.
    8. Cenamor, Javier & Frishammar, Johan, 2021. "Openness in platform ecosystems: Innovation strategies for complementary products," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(1).
    9. Brea, Edgar, 2023. "A framework for mapping actor roles and their innovation potential in digital ecosystems," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    10. Qinwei Cao & Manqing Tan & Peng Xie & Jian Huang, 2022. "Can emerging economies take advantage of their population size to gain international academic recognition? Evidence from key universities in China," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(2), pages 927-957, February.
    11. Miehé, Lucas & Palmié, Maximilian & Oghazi, Pejvak, 2023. "Connection successfully established: How complementors use connectivity technologies to join existing ecosystems – Four archetype strategies from the mobility sector," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    12. Smirnova, Inna & Reitzig, Markus & Alexy, Oliver, 2022. "What makes the right OSS contributor tick? Treatments to motivate high-skilled developers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(1).
    13. Selma Leticia Capinzaiki Ottonicar & Paloma Marin Arraiza & Fabiano Armellini, 2020. "Opening Science and Innovation: Opportunities for Emerging Economies," Foresight and STI Governance, National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 14(4), pages 95-111.
    14. Vishal K. Gupta & Suman Niranjan & Erik Markin, 2020. "Entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance: the mediating role of generative and acquisitive learning through customer relationships," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 1123-1147, October.
    15. Lena Abou El-Komboz & Thomas Fackler, 2023. "Productivity Spillovers among Knowledge Workers in Agglomerations: Evidence from GitHub," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 399, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    16. Miremadi, Iman & Khoshbash, Mostafa & Saeedian, MohammadMahdi, 2023. "Fostering generativity in platform ecosystems: How open innovation and complexity interact to influence platform adoption," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    17. Jacobides, Michael G. & Cennamo, Carmelo & Gawer, Annabelle, 2024. "Externalities and complementarities in platforms and ecosystems: From structural solutions to endogenous failures," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(1).
    18. Cassandra R. Chambers, 2024. "Nonmonetary Reward Systems, Counterproductive Behavior, and Responses to Sanctions in Open Collaboration Environments," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(3), pages 928-947, May.
    19. Frank Nagle, 2018. "Learning by Contributing: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Contribution to Crowdsourced Public Goods," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 569-587, August.
    20. Islam, Mazhar & Miller, Jacob & Park, Haemin Dennis, 2017. "But what will it cost me? How do private costs of participation affect open source software projects?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1062-1070.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:5:p:2279-:d:1606204. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.