Abstract
This thesis investigates power in a new organisational form: the digital platform. Platforms have disrupted our societies by creating and coordinating novel, flexible, and shifting forms of social interaction, changing how we trade, work, and communicate. The profound and abrupt economic transformation brought by platform companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta, while carrying initial expectations of increased freedom of choice, higher social cohesion, and power distribution, was soon shadowed by the growing evidence of platform power concentration and abuse. This research critically examines the characteristics and dynamics of power within digital platforms, specifically focusing on platforms’ organising structures and influence.
This problem is approached from three different dimensions. The first dimension pertains to the structure of social interactions, recognising the mechanisms through which platforms shape power relations and autonomy by influencing agents’ interactions and modulating participatory practices. The subsequent dimension is centred on the platform's governance, contrasting the principles guiding the governance and how it is enacted, and how this shapes power dynamics within the platform. Lastly, the third dimension focuses on the interplay between firms, assessing the extent of influence wielded by the platform's owner in directing shifts in the value creation and capture strategies of other participant firms.
Each dimension of the research problem is addressed in one study in a dedicated chapter, after charting the foundational concepts that characterise digital platforms and summarising extant research on platform power. The first study is based exclusively on conceptual development, while the second and third are a qualitative case study of the Amazon Marketplace, focused on Amazon’s and the sellers’ practices and how these affect each other.
Overall, this thesis contributes to advancing our knowledge of how we understand platforms and provides new ways to characterise platform power, its dynamics, and its consequences.