Conclusion

Following heightened research interest in platforms and globally increasing e-commerce revenues, the objective of this cumulative dissertation was the domain-specific investigation of platforms in e-commerce. We investigated platforms in e-commerce from enterprise architecture, boundary resource, application lifecycle, dynamic capabilities, and value creation perspectives. Based upon an in-depth analysis of general platform research and research on platforms in the context of e-commerce, the investigation of multiple innovation platforms (e.g., Magento Commerce, Shopify, WooCommerce) and transaction platforms (e.g., Amazon Marketplace, Etsy, Walmart Marketplace) in e-commerce, and interviews with multiple domain experts (i.e., business process owners, user interface designers, internal platform developers) on platforms and boundary resources in e-commerce ecosystems, we emphasized how owners of focal platforms in e-commerce ecosystems shape ecosystem structure and participants.