Essays on Value Creation, Disintermediation, and Platform-Based Strategies

Abstract

As firms increasingly rely on data and algorithms to create value, new strategic management challenges arise which lead to revenue loss and user attrition. My dissertation examines the strategic and managerial puzzles that hinder digital firms’ value creation, from the perspectives of online community design, disintermediation, and platform-based strategies. The first chapter focuses on platform design and user segregation. The second and third chapters focus on disintermediation and its relationship to user trust and technological development. This dissertation aims to direct attention to strategic dilemmas that firms face as they embrace digital business models and provide theoretical and managerial contributions to platform studies in strategic management literature.