Platform Choice and Resource Configuration: From the Perspective of Resource Dependence

This research studies how small and medium-sized companies decide whether to build their own digital platform or join an existing one, using Resource Dependence Theory (a framework explaining how organizations manage their needed resources). The study found that companies worry more about becoming dependent on platforms than about lacking resources, and that data dependence (reliance on information controlled by platforms) is a new and important factor that traditional theories didn't account for.