Leon Özcan successfully completed his doctorate on the topic of "Systematics for the strategic management of digital platforms in B2B markets" under Prof Dr.-Ing. Roman Dumitrescu.
Summary of the doctoral dissertation:
In the course of digitization, digital platforms are unleashing their full disruptive potential and have led to fundamental changes in B2C markets. Experts expect and are already observing, that digital platforms will continue to take hold and lead to similar changes in B2B markets. The associated economic potential is higher than in B2C markets and still largely untapped. Companies want to tap this potential and plan or pursue entry into the platform economy. However, success in the platform economy is not guaranteed and only a few companies manage to operate a platform business successfully in the long term.
The goal of this thesis is a systematic approach for the strategic management of digital platforms in B2B markets. The platform lifecycle model forms the basis of the approach, which depicts goals and milestones depending on the maturity of a platform business. Platform operators need guidance to achieve the goals along the platform lifecycle. For this purpose, a catalog of design options is provided. These design options represent proven solutions to recurring challenges in the platform economy. The core of the approach is a method. It consists of a process model that structures the tasks of the strategic management of digital platforms and several tools for mastering these tasks. The approach is applied to two digital platforms, resulting in a strategically managed digital platform in each case.
