Talking about Platforms

About the Guest

Sabine Baumann is a professor of digital business and the university vice president at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. She serves as the scientific director at the Oldenburg Institute for Information Technology and is the editor-in-chief for the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society's leadership brief. As a business scholar who witnessed early digital disruption firsthand in the media industry during the 1990s with the rise of Napster, she has spent decades studying digital transformation, digital business models, and platform ecosystems.

Summary

The episode explores digital platforms and business ecosystems from an economic and governance perspective, emphasizing that successful platforms rely just as much on rules and incentive structures as they do on technology. Baumann discusses the limitations of AI, arguing that while it aids in automation and scaling, it cannot completely solve "Baumol's cost disease" because many ecosystem processes still depend on inherently slow, human-centric activities like negotiation. The conversation contrasts heavily researched B2C platforms with B2B industrial ecosystems, noting that manufacturing environments face unique hurdles to platform adoption, including expensive legacy systems, physical assets, and a lack of digital capabilities. Baumann critiques the "build it, and they will come" mentality, stressing that platforms must build critical mass through network effects and ensure participants can capture, rather than just create, value. Ultimately, she highlights her current work revisiting traditional scholars like Sherwin Rosen and his "superstar economics" to better understand winner-takes-all dynamics in modern digital markets.

Links to books and papers mentioned

About the Guest

Brief and concise summary of the content

Links to books and papers mentioned

In this episode, hosts Daniel and Tommaso are joined by returning guest Elizabeth Altman and first-time guest Mary Tripsas to discuss their recent jointly authored MIT Sloan Management Review article, "How Nesting Changes Platform Strategy". The conversation explores the emerging strategic trend of "nested platforms"—arrangements where one platform embeds directly into another platform's user experience.

The group dives into the strategic trade-offs companies face when deciding whether to host another platform, nest within one, or do both. They examine how these complex relationships impact market reach, branding, competition, and data sharing. Featuring real-world examples like Spotify seamlessly integrating with Sonos, Canva nesting inside ChatGPT, and Trello operating within Microsoft Teams, the episode offers a deep dive into the messy but opportunistic webs of today's digital ecosystems and introduces the concept of "nesting intensity".

Guest Bios

Elizabeth J. Altman is an Associate Professor of Management at the Manning School of Business, UMass Lowell, and a digital fellow and research affiliate at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. Her research focuses on strategy, innovation, platform businesses and ecosystems, and the future of work. Before entering academia, she spent 19 years in the industry, holding executive and leadership roles at Motorola and working as an engineer for Sony in Japan. She holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, as well as master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Management from MIT. She is also the lead author of the book Workforce Ecosystems: Reaching Strategic Goals with People, Partners, and Technologies.

Mary Tripsas is a Professor of Technology Management in the College of Engineering at UC Santa Barbara. A leading management scholar, her research and teaching focus on technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and how organizations adapt to disruptive technologies and industry shifts. Prior to joining UCSB, she served on the faculties of the Wharton School, Harvard Business School, and Boston College. She earned her Ph.D. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and her MBA from Harvard Business School. Before her academic career, she worked as a software engineer and sales member for IBM, and as a strategy consultant for the Monitor Group.

Professor Alessio Cozzolino is an Assistant Professor of Strategy at University College Dublin’s Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and Academic Director of the MSc in Strategic Management and Planning. He joined UCD in 2015 after completing his PhD in Business Administration and Management at Bocconi University, including a visiting scholar period at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business.

His research focuses on technological change, digital platforms, business models, and ecosystems, with a particular interest in how incumbents adapt to disruptive innovations and “complementary‑asset discontinuities” such as the internet and blockchain. He has published in leading journals like Journal of Management Studies, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of Business Research, and Research Policy, and his work on disruption, coopetition, and platform-based ecosystems is widely cited.

Professor Cozzolino received the INFORMS Technology, Innovation Management & Entrepreneurship Section Best Dissertation Award for his doctoral work on technological change and competitive advantage in the newspaper industry. Before his academic career, he worked in corporate finance at the Italian media group Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso, gaining hands-on experience with digital transformation in news, broadcasting, and advertising businesses.

He teaches strategy, innovation, and digital business in MBA and MSc programs and has delivered courses in Ireland, Italy, the United States, and across Asia, including Singapore and Hong Kong. Across his teaching, research, and industry engagement, Cozzolino helps leaders understand how to redesign business models, manage alliances, and navigate disruption in fast-changing industries from media and entertainment to healthcare and transportation.

Kimmo Karhu is a Finnish academic and researcher specializing in strategic management, digitalization, and platform economies. He serves as an Assistant Professor at Aalto University, where he teaches courses on ICT-enabled service business and innovation while leading research on emerging technologies and interdisciplinary projects.

With prior experience as VP of Product Development at Medicel Oy and in data strategy roles at the City of Helsinki, Karhu bridges industry practice with academia, focusing on mobile ecosystems, intelligent transportation, and digital disruption.

His work emphasizes practical applications of technology in business, making him a compelling voice on innovation strategies for modern enterprises.

Krithika Randhawa is an Associate Professor of Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Sydney Business School, where she also serves as an ARC Research Fellow. Her research focuses on open innovation and digital strategy, specifically examining how organizations use crowdsourcing, digital platforms, and innovation ecosystems to solve complex problems in sectors like healthcare and manufacturing. Before entering academia, she spent eight years in the global hospitality industry with ITC and Starwood Hotels, experience that grounds her academic work in practical business management.

Virginia Springer is an academic researcher at the University of Sydney Business School, specializing in the dynamics of digital platforms and business-to-business (B2B) ecosystems. Her work, which she frequently publishes in collaboration with Associate Professor Randhawa, investigates how industrial firms govern and design digital platforms to remain competitive. Originally educated in Germany at the University of Stuttgart, she brings an interdisciplinary background to her current focus on the strategic challenges of industrial data ecosystems.

Maximilian Schreieck is an Associate Professor for Information Systems with a focus on Digital Services and Platforms at the Department of Information Systems, Production and Logistics Management at the University of Innsbruck. He earned his PhD in Information Systems at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in 2020 and completed his habilitation at the University of Innsbruck in 2025. From 2021 to 2022, he was a visiting scholar and DFG Walter Benjamin Fellow at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Maximilian’s research interests include digital platform ecosystems, platform governance, digital platforms for social causes, and digital transformation of established companies. His research has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of Management Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, Journal of the AIS, Information Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Business & Information Systems Engineering, and Electronic Markets.

Guest: Sangeet Paul Choudary

Bio: Sangeet Paul Choudary is best known as one of the co-authors of the milestone book Platform Revolution, which explores how networked markets transform the economy. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business. Sangeet has advised leadership teams at over 40 Fortune 500 companies—including firms like Daimler and Nestlé—as well as pre-IPO technology companies. He is a recognized expert on platform economics and network effects and has been a keynote speaker at major global forums such as the G20 Summit, the World50 Summit, and the World Economic Forum. His widely acclaimed Harvard Business Review article, "Pipelines, Platforms, and the New Rules of Strategy," was named one of the top 10 management ideas of 2017 and has been featured in multiple HBR must-read anthologies.

Summary: In this episode, Sangeet discusses the systemic impact of AI on the knowledge economy, presenting his latest book, Reshuffle. He argues that true competitive advantage in an era of technological shift comes not from executing the old game better, but from reinventing the game and setting the rules for others. The conversation moves beyond the typical focus on automation and tasks, examining how technology collapses fundamental constraints (such as the cost of editing in the case of typists) and shifts power structures. Sangeet also redefines platforms as the most scalable mechanism to coordinate complementary activities and investments within an ecosystem, and explains why AI represents a unique shift by acting as a non-commoditized, programmable input that moves power closer to the beginning of the value chain.

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Welcome to a very special episode! While you usually hear them leading the conversation, today we're thrilled to turn the tables as we welcome our esteemed co-hosts, Daniel Trabucchi and Tommaso Buganza, to the guest chair. They're here to share profound insights from their groundbreaking new book, The Digital Phoenix Effect: How Legacy Companies Can Lead the Platform Revolution Without Burning Everything Down.

In this conversation, Daniel and Tommaso reveal how established companies, often seen as 'legacy' businesses, can ingeniously leverage their existing strengths and assets to not just survive, but truly thrive in our platform-dominated economy. They'll challenge the notion that transformation means mimicking tech giants, instead offering a powerful framework for 'platform thinking' that sparks regeneration from within. We dive into how this approach can tackle some of the most pressing systemic challenges of our time, from digital transformation and climate change to ESG compliance. Get ready to discover how traditional businesses can become 'digital phoenixes,' reimagining value creation and activating their latent power through strategic platform adoption. This episode is packed with practical wisdom from two of the leading voices in business innovation, offering a roadmap for relevance and growth in the years to come.

Find their books here:

The Digital Phoenix Effect: How Legacy Companies Can Lead the Platform Revolution Without Burning Everything Down by Daniel Trabucchi and Tommaso Buganza: Link to Google Books for The Digital Phoenix Effect (Check Amazon or other major retailers for direct purchase link if available)

Platform Thinking: Read the past. Write the future. by Daniel Trabucchi and Tommaso Buganza: Link to Barnes & Noble for Platform Thinking (Also available on Goodreads)

Guest: Geoffrey (Geoff) G. Parker

Bio: Geoff Parker is a professor of engineering at the Thayer School at Dartmouth College and the faculty director at the Irving Institute for Energy and Society. He was awarded the Thinkers50 digital thinking award for his work on two-sided markets and the inverted firm. He is the co-author of the influential book Platform Revolution. He received his doctorate from MIT, where he was a doctoral student alongside Marshall Van Alstyne.

Summary: In this episode, Geoff, a leading expert in platform research and co-author of Platform Revolution, discusses the origins of his work on platforms, the evolution of platform business models, and the ongoing relevance of platform thinking in today's dynamic technological and regulatory landscape. The conversation traces the journey from early observations of free online services and the formalization of two-sided markets to the strategic implications of platforms and their impact across various industries, including B2B and energy. Geoff reflects on the initial skepticism surrounding platform theory, the significant effect of Platform Revolution, and his current work exploring platform dynamics in specific sectors. The discussion also touches upon the challenges faced by established firms in transitioning to platform models and the influence of emerging technologies and regulations on the platform ecosystem.

Key Discussion Points

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