Realizing digital platform business strategy through design requirements for business models
Frank Berkers defended his PhD thesis at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences on December 8th.
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In his PhD research, Frank Berkers revealed a method for creating business models for digital platforms. Many start-ups and established companies today are considering implementing a digital platform. However, often the business models fail for strategic reasons, such as incorrect pricing strategies, wrong choices regarding openness, lack of critical mass and wrong assessment of network effects.
Although platform strategies are of great importance, Berkers states there is a lack of support in developing business models to realize those strategies. Moreover, the fields of business strategy and digital platform strategy are still separate, making existing strategy theories inadequate in this context.
Berkers developed a method to formulate business model requirements based on digital platform strategy. As an intermediate step, strategic objectives are formulated based on a catalog of key strategy elements. The method has been successfully validated in the manufacturing industry and evaluated by professionals from various industrial sectors.
Frank Berkers is also professor (lector) at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and lead scientist on networked business models at TNO.
Title of the PhD thesis: "Realizing digital platform business strategy through design requirements for business models: Development of a guiding method." Promoters: Paul Grefen, Oktay Türetken and Baris Ozkan