Software Components and Product Variety in a Platform Ecosystem: A Dynamic Network Analysis of WordPress
Software Components and Product Variety in a Platform Ecosystem: A Dynamic Network Analysis of WordPress
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DOI：
10.1287/isre.2022.1172
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发表时间：
2022-11
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Sungyong Um;Bin Zhang;S. Wattal;Youngjin Yoo
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文献类型：
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作者：
Sungyong Um;Bin Zhang;S. Wattal;Youngjin Yoo
外部开发人员提供的应用程序编程接口（API）等软件组件对在线数字平台至关重要。虽然根据轶事，API通常会增加产品的种类，但API类别和产品种类之间的确切关系尚不清楚。我们发现API，就其使用频率而言，可分为三类。核心是一组经常使用的API，而外围是一组很少使用的API。在一个庞大而成熟的平台生态系统中，会出现一组额外的API，即主要由第三方开发人员提供的常规核心。常规核心中的API是产品多样性的主要驱动力。然而，我们也发现，当大多数新产品都是通过复制其他产品的API使用来构建时，这种影响的强度在新创建的产品类别中会减弱。平台所有者可以通过充当数字产品提供商和第三方开发者之间的桥梁来激发开发者的创造力。它可以从第三方开发人员那里收集功能需求，然后与产品提供商共享。因此，后者可以构建开发人员需要的API。
Software components such as application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by external developers are vital to online digital platforms. Although APIs generally increase the variety of products according to anecdote, the precise relationship between the categories of APIs and product variety is not yet known. We find that APIs, regarding their use frequency, are categorized into three groups. The core is a group of frequently used APIs, whereas the periphery is a group of sparsely used APIs. In a large and mature platform ecosystem, an additional group of APIs, the regular core, mainly provided by third-party developers, emerges. APIs in the regular core are the main driver of product variety. However, we also find that the strength of this effect diminishes in a newly created product category when most of the new products are built by duplicating the usage of APIs from other products. A platform owner can stimulate developers’ creativity by acting as a bridge between digital product providers and third-party developers. It can collect functional needs from third-party developers and then share them with product providers. Therefore, the latter can build APIs that developers need.