We consider the merits of the recent EU’s Digital Markets Act from the perspective of innovation and value creation. We conceptualize innovation as new interactions being created by the digital platform leading to ‘value creation’, in contrast to facilitating existing interactions or...

Current discussions about how to regulate platforms revolve around the extent to which existing frameworks can and should be applied to modern-day platform firms and business models. We outline and explain the economic and strategic features of platforms, and compare and contrast them to utility...

Mainstream logic supports the idea that platforms bring large benefits to firms, especially smaller ones, by opening up access to a broader set of consumers and making firms' products easier to find. However, this argument mostly applies to transaction platforms that match consumer preferences...

Platforms operators act as private regulators to increase usage and maximize profits. Their goals depend on the development of the platform: overcoming the chicken-egg problem early on requires attracting platform participants while quality becomes more important later on. Private regulators...