The Role of Digital Platforms in Scaling and Internationalizing Entrepreneurial Ventures
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Digital platforms have affected the way entrepreneurs develop and grow their
businesses by providing them with the means to expand into global markets. The
purpose of this investigation is to explore how platforms affect entrepreneurs and their
ability to expand and sell internationally by providing an overview of how
entrepreneurs use and interact with platform technology in their daily business
operations. This research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods via
survey data, illustrative case examples, and established theory to offer a better
understanding of the effects of platform based growth on entrepreneurial
development.
The analysis has identified five main factors that enable entrepreneurs to grow their
business using digital platforms; Automated and technological infrastructure,
marketing tools for discoverability and tracking performance, learning and capability
development, establishing trust and fairness, and providing direct services to
entrepreneurs. These factors indicate that digital platforms provide entrepreneurs
with an overall digital infrastructure vs solely being transactional marketplaces that
provide entrepreneurs the ability to improve their operational efficiency, access global
customers, and better manage the complexity of operating their business with minimal
added human and financial resources.
In this research, we have used the dynamic capabilities theory, Born global theory, and
Platform ecosystem theory to understand the findings from the empirical research. It
is clear from the findings that platform tools can have a positive impact on the growth
of new businesses; however, for entrepreneurs to successfully scale their business,
they must strategically combine their platform-based toolset, continuously develop
digital capabilities, and manage their reliance on the governance structure of the
platforms. Detailed analyses reveal aspects of trust, the opaque nature of algorithms,
and responsiveness to requests to be central moderators of platform-based
businesses' engagement with and resilience on the platforms over time. In addition to
providing a holistic, experiential view on how professionals use digital platforms, this
dissertation addresses both digital entrepreneurship and global commerce; concluding
that scaling through platforms is an ongoing process of creating value based upon
technology (affordance) combined with actions taken by entrepreneurs (agency).
These conclusions will serve as a basis for further exploration into governance of
platforms, development of digital capabilities and sustained success in entrepreneurial
ecosystems.