Platform Strategy: Managing Ecosystem Value Through Selective Promotion of Complements

The authors thank Marshall van Alstyne, Genevieve Bassellier, J. P. Eggers, Brad Greenwood, Masakazu Ishihara, and Bill Greene for feedback on this paper. The authors thank Suzanne Müller for helping to collect data. The authors also thank all their industry informants for insights into the video game industry and for sharing data to facilitate the authors' research. Finally, the authors thank Senior Editor Gary Dushnitsky and two anonymous reviewers for constructive and helpful feedback. The paper benefited from feedback received during various presentations including an SMS special conference in Rome (2016), the Platform Strategy Research Symposium in Boston (2016), the Academy of Management meeting in Anaheim (2016), the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conversation at Imperial College London (2017), and the Sumantra Ghoshal conference at London Business School (2017). The paper also benefited from seminar presentations at the Strategy Unit of Harvard Business School, the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department at University College London, the Strategy Area at INSEAD, the Strategy Department at IESE, the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Department at Imperial College London, the Management School of the University of Liverpool, and the Stern School of Business of New York University. All mistakes are the authors'.