Industry platforms as facilitators of disruptive iot innovations

Abstract

We undertake an inductive study of four firms developing industry platforms upon which potentially disruptive IoT products and services are developed by external firms. Our results indicate there to be four types of industry platform (generalist, specialist, technology-centric, and industry-centric), each facilitating a unique mode of disruptive change. We propose that technology-centric platforms are more likely to facilitate business model disruptions, while industry-centric platforms are more likely to facilitate technological disruptions. Generalist industry platforms, by contrast, are able to facilitate both business model and technological disruptions, given the freedom they allow IoT firms to build their product and service solutions.