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Topic · Strategy and Management

Digital Platforms and Economics

Digital Platforms and Economics is a research topic within Strategy and Management. Science Explorer counts 28k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the competition and dynamics within two-sided markets, with a particular emphasis on platform competition, network effects, ecosystem innovation, technology standards, and price discrimination. The research explores the impact of network externalities and digital business models on market strategies and innovation.

  • Two-Sided Markets
  • Platform Competition
  • Network Effects
  • Ecosystem Innovation
  • Market Dynamics
  • Technology Standards
  • Price Discrimination
  • Network Externalities
  • Digital Business Models
  • Innovation Strategies
Research works
28k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.9k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+19%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
28% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Digital Platforms and Economics

Which countries lead Digital Platforms and Economics research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.2k and 1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.2k works
  2. 2 United States 1k works
  3. 3 Germany 517 works
  4. 4 India 426 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 306 works
  6. 6 Italy 198 works
  7. 7 France 194 works
  8. 8 Russia 166 works
  9. 9 Indonesia 156 works
  10. 10 Brazil 139 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 27.8%United States: 24.0%Germany: 11.9%India: 9.8%6 others listed: 26.6%28%largest
China1,211 · 27.8%United States1,046 · 24.0%Germany517 · 11.9%India426 · 9.8%6 others listed1,160 · 26.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Digital Platforms and Economics research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Digital Platforms and Economics research, followed by University of Science and Technology of China and Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 31 works
  2. 2 University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 29 works
  3. 3 Indian Institute of Management BangaloreIndia 24 works
  4. 4 Fraunhofer-GesellschaftGermany 23 works
  5. 5 University of TorontoCanada 21 works
  6. 6 Film IndependentUnited States 21 works
  7. 7 Tianjin UniversityChina 21 works
  8. 8 Cornell UniversityUnited States 20 works
  9. 9 Tsinghua UniversityChina 19 works
  10. 10 National University of SingaporeSingapore 19 works

Who are the leading researchers in Digital Platforms and Economics?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Digital Platforms and Economics include Christian M. Ringle, Michael I. Jordan and Kathleen M. Eisenhardt.

  1. 1 Christian M. Ringle Germany 215k citations
  2. 2 Michael I. Jordan United States 182k citations
  3. 3 Kathleen M. Eisenhardt United States 169k citations
  4. 4 Joseph E. Stiglitz United States 167k citations
  5. 5 H. Vincent Poor United States 165k citations
  6. 6 Michael E. Porter United States 165k citations
  7. 7 Daron Acemoğlu United States 164k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Digital Platforms and Economics?

The most cited paper in Digital Platforms and Economics is "Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness" (Brian Uzzi, 1997), with 9,734 citations. Next come "Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events" (7,491) and "Value creation in E‐business" (5,546).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness Brian Uzzi · Administrative Science Quarterly Mar 1997 9,734
2 Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events W. Brian Arthur · The Economic Journal Mar 1989 7,491
3 Value creation in E‐business Raphael H Amit, Christoph Zott · Strategic Management Journal Jun 2001 5,546
4 Institutions Douglass C. North · The Journal of Economic Perspectives Feb 1991 5,212
5 Alliances and networks Ranjay Gulati · Strategic Management Journal Apr 1998 4,687
All 101 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Digital Platforms and Economics research done?

The largest centres of Digital Platforms and Economics research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), London (United Kingdom) and Moscow (Russia).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 183 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 109 works
  3. 3 LondonUnited Kingdom 93 works
  4. 4 MoscowRussia 92 works
  5. 5 NanjingChina 83 works
  6. 6 GuangzhouChina 62 works
  7. 7 New YorkUnited States 58 works
  8. 8 SeoulSouth Korea 58 works
  9. 9 BengaluruIndia 57 works
  10. 10 Hong KongChina 57 works
See Digital Platforms and Economics on the map

Where is the best place to study Digital Platforms and Economics?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of Science and Technology of China and Tianjin University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 17.95%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechni…Tianjin UniversityUniversity of Scienc…University of Toronto
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 78.724.9%3.0×15 +73.7%
2University of Science and Technology of ChinaChina 71.313.2%4.5×29 +92.6%
3Tianjin UniversityChina 69.020.3%3.1×21 +34.0%
4University of TorontoCanada 65.611.4%1.9×22 +17.1%
5Lappeenranta-Lahti University of TechnologyFinland 64.525.7%17.2×10 +62.6%
6South China University of TechnologyChina 64.118.4%2.8×17 +68.6%
7Yale UniversityUnited States 64.020.1%2.3×14 +34.6%
8National University of SingaporeSingapore 62.615.3%2.9×19 -0.3%
9Renmin University of ChinaChina 62.119.5%8.1×15 +158.2%
10Cornell UniversityUnited States 61.610.7%2.8×20 +54.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Digital Platforms and Economics, country by country

Is Digital Platforms and Economics research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 19% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Digital Platforms and Economics.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Digital Platforms and Economics as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.028% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Digital Platforms and Economics0.028% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Digital Platforms and Economics over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Digital Platforms and Economics10.6% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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