Love and Hate Relationships in a Platform Ecosystem: A case of Finnish Electronic Identity Management

Abstract

There has been a substantial interest among scholars in digital platforms and their governance. This paper proposes a different perspective on the phenomenon, by providing observations on non-focal firms’ dependencies to external platforms. Using the case study results of Finnish firms’ utilization of a monopolistic BankID authentication platform, we describe the platform ecosystem and its transformation on organizational and technology aspects. We show how legislation can transform the roles and relations between ecosystem participants and lead to the long-time dominant legacy platform weakening. Our study extends existing research on platforms and contributes new knowledge about the enforced adoption of the platform by heterogeneous organizations. These findings have important managerial implications, as they inform how non-focal firms can understand the use of existing and coming digital platforms.