Synergizing Multi-Sided Platform Firms and Crowds: A Typology of an Open Innovation Mechanism in a Digital Ecosystem

This article empirically explores the strategic fit of digital multi-sided platform (MSP) firms that adopt open innovation by incorporating their user crowds. The study constructs the typology and classification of four different open innovation mechanisms that provide strategic fits between an open innovation strategy and user crowds in a digital ecosystem. The inductive multiple case study findings from various leading digital MSP firms that have different business models show how they implement different approaches to integrate the characteristics of their type of open innovation strategy and user crowd participation in the innovation process. The open innovation mechanism in a digital landscape is the explanatory aspect of the open innovation performance differences between one and other digital MSP firms.