Lilla Hortoványi

Strategy Without Templates

Adaptation in Digital Environments

11.3.3 Platform and Ecosystem Theory Revisited

Platform and ecosystem theory has emerged as a central framework for understanding digital competition (Gawer & Cusumano, 2014; Jacobides et al., 2018). It emphasizes network effects, multi-sided markets, and value co-creation among interdependent actors. This perspective has illuminated how platforms coordinate activity, how ecosystems evolve, and how value is created and captured in networked environments.

Yet much of this literature adopts the platform’s perspective, focusing on how platform owners orchestrate ecosystems, manage governance structures, and capture value from network effects (Tiwana et al., 2010). Less attention has been paid to the strategic situation of firms operating within platform ecosystems – the complementors, third-party developers, and ecosystem participants whose strategic options are shaped and constrained by platform governance.

The template-free framework shifts focus to the firm within the ecosystem. It shows that platform participation creates a distinctive strategic condition characterized by constrained agency, mediated feedback, and distributed governance. Firms depend on platforms for access to markets, infrastructure, and data, yet they do not control the rules governing that access (Addo, 2022). Platforms can change algorithms, policies, and architectures unilaterally, invalidating strategies that were previously effective (Vuori et al., 2024). Governance is distributed across multiple actors whose interests may not align, creating strategic uncertainty not just about outcomes but about the rules themselves (Kari et al., 2025).

Recent research confirms the depth of this constraint. Platforms continuously reshape competitive dynamics through architectural changes and policy adjustments (Gillespie, 2014; Gawer, 2014). Clough et al. (2020) demonstrate that platforms construct synthetic market realities that mediate firms’ relationships with customers. The result is that firms must develop strategic capabilities suited to conditions of constrained agency – the ability to navigate within bounded possibility spaces, to calibrate behavior in response to opaque signals, and to maintain viability when the conditions of action keep shifting.

The template-free perspective extends platform theory by specifying the strategic implications of platform dependence. It shows that firms operating within ecosystems face not merely the coordination challenges that ecosystem theory emphasizes, but fundamental epistemic and structural constraints that alter the nature of strategic action itself. Strategy becomes less about positioning within a stable ecosystem structure and more about sustaining adaptive movement within a continuously reconfiguring governance landscape.

This reconceptualization opens new research directions. It suggests that scholars should pay more attention to how firms develop capabilities for operating under platform constraint. It implies that ecosystem theory should incorporate power asymmetries and governance dynamics more centrally into its analytical framework. It raises questions about whether and how firms can maintain strategic autonomy when they are deeply embedded in platform ecosystems.

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 204 4

Gazdaság

What happens when understanding comes only after action has already begun?

Traditional strategy rests on the assumption that organizations can understand their environment before deciding how to act. Yet the conditions that once allowed organizations to rely on benchmarking, best practices, and proven strategic templates can no longer be taken for granted. Today, organizations increasingly face situations for which no clear roadmap exists. Established assumptions become less reliable, familiar reference points lose their clarity, and strategic decisions must be made before their consequences can be fully understood.

Strategy Without Templates explores how organizations learn, adapt, and navigate environments in which uncertainty is pervasive and established templates are absent or no longer sufficient. Instead of treating strategy as a process of prediction and planning, the book explores how strategic paths take shape through action, experimentation, adjustment, and learning.

A central insight in the book is that temporary solutions are often necessary. What begins as a practical response to an immediate challenge may gradually shape future possibilities in unexpected ways. Some solutions create new opportunities and sources of advantage. Others become constraints that are difficult to overcome.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/hortovanyi-strategy-without-templates//

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