Evaluating the Value of Emerging Digital Platform Ecosystems: Lessons from the Construction Industry

Despite previous research on well-established digital platforms aimed at business-to-consumer markets, there is a limited understanding of how smaller actors of project-based industries create new business-to-business digital platform ecosystems. This paper explores how incumbent actors evaluate business value as they transition towards an emerging ecosystem. Based on two cases of construction companies in Finland and Norway, we describe how the actors’ perception of value changes during the early stages of their digital transformation process. We present a non-exhaustive list of criteria different than costs and revenue, which the actors relied upon to evaluate or measure the value of their emerging platform. From a theoretical perspective, we expand previous studies on digital platform ecosystems and value creation. From a practical perspective, we discuss how to adapt existing business models and manage new partnerships for an emerging ecosystem