Input Control Practices and their Implications for Software Platform Ecosystems (OpenEco)

OpenEco研究项目的目标是研究软件生态系统中的输入控制实践（即，筛选和批准程序，规定哪些互补物及其互补物被授予访问软件平台的权限），这在实践中得到广泛使用，但在研究中基本上被忽视。鉴于先前的研究主要集中在传统控制设置中的经典控制模式（例如，在OpenEco的第一个项目阶段，我们开发了一个经过验证的输入控制的概念定义和测量量表（PIC量表），并在几个不同平台环境下进行了实地调查，并对其进行了交叉验证。此外，我们还可以研究软件平台上各种输入控制实践对互补者态度和行为的影响。最后，我们基于众筹平台Kickstarter上的一个自然实验，探讨了放松输入控制对平台互补者、用户和整个生态系统的长期影响。因此，我们可以利用政策的变化，放宽Kickstarter上对新项目的严格筛选程序，并使我们能够研究其对互补者，用户和整个平台生态系统的影响。在OpenEco的第二个项目阶段，我们计划在三个主要领域进行后续研究。首先，为了加深我们对平台生态系统中的输入控制实践和程序的理解，我们的目标是系统地分析具体的软件平台，并基于多案例研究方法得出不同的输入控制制度。其次，基于多方法的方法，我们的目标是研究输入控制和其他正式和非正式的控制模式，通常不会发生在彼此孤立的相互作用。最后，我们希望通过在一个已建立的电子商务平台上进行随机现场实验，扩展我们之前的调查，以了解改变输入控制对关键平台参与者和整个平台生态系统的长期影响，该平台与申请人合作，系统地操纵输入控制实践的严格性。我们希望通过从理论上发展输入控制作为管理平台操作者和补充者之间关系的可行的正式机制，来为信息系统控制文献做出贡献。此外，我们希望通过强调改变输入控制实践可能产生深远而深刻的影响，可能会使整个软件生态系统失衡，并从根本上改变其特性，从而推进对软件平台的研究。因此，我们的项目适合于更广泛的新兴研究，研究数字平台生态系统的开放性和可持续性。

The goal of the research project OpenEco is to examine input control practices in software ecosystems (i.e., the screening and approval processes that regulate what complementors and their complements are granted access to a software platform), which are widely used in practice but largely overlooked in research. Given that previous studies have primarily focused on classical control modes in traditional control settings (e.g., IT outsourcing) and have only vaguely invoked input control, there is a clear need to more thoroughly examine the nature and effects of input control for software ecosystems.In the first project phase of OpenEco, we developed a validated conceptual definition and measurement scale for input control (the PIC scale) and cross-validated it based on field surveys in several different platform contexts. In addition, we could examine the effects of a wide range of input control practices on software platforms on complementor attitudes and behaviors. Finally, we explored the long-term implications of relaxing input control for platform complementors, users and the overall ecosystem based on a natural experiment occurring at the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. We thereby could exploit a policy change that relaxed the previously stringent screening process for new projects on Kickstarter, and enabled us to examine its effects on complementors, users and the entire platform ecosystem.In the second project phase of OpenEco, we plan to conduct follow-up research in three main areas. First, to deepen our understanding of input control practices and procedures as exercised in platform ecosystems, we aim to systematically profile concrete software platforms and derive different input control regimes based on a multi case study approach. Second, based on a multi-method approach, we aim to examine the interplay between input control and other formal and informal control modes that usually do not occur in isolation from one another. Finally, we want to extend our previous investigations into the long-term implications of changing input control for key platform actors and the overall platform ecosystem by conducting a randomized field experiment on an established E-Commerce platform that collaborates with the applicant to systematically manipulate the rigor of input control practices.With OpenEco, we want to contribute to the Information Systems control literature by theoretically developing input control as viable formal mechanism to govern the relationship between platform operators and complementors. Furthermore, we would like to advance the still nascent research on software platforms by highlighting that changing input control practices can have far-reaching and profound effects that may unbalance an entire software ecosystem and fundamentally transform its character. Our project thus fits under the broader umbrella of emerging research examining the openness and sustainability of digital platform ecosystems.