Understanding the boundary decision of digital platform enterprises

Purpose: Boundary decision is an important but underexplored theme in digital platform research. The boundary decision of digital platform enterprises (DPEs) differs from traditional organizations because of cross-side network effects (CNEs). This study intends to investigate whether transaction cost economics (TCE) and resource-based view (RBV), as classical organization boundary mechanisms, are still applicable for DPEs. Design/methodology/approach: To unfold the research problem, this study conducts a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on the samples of 21 platform business units. Findings: The results show that the classical boundary decision theory still applies in the context of DPEs, but the cross-side network effects will affect boundary decision of DPEs. Originality/value: This study provides a new framework – integrates TCE, RBV and CNEs – to analyze boundary decision of DPEs. This paper also contributes to research on both organization boundary decision and platform governance.