Business Use of Digital Platforms – Scope, Value and Impact on Austrian Firms
Digital technologies have contributed to the emergence of digital platforms enabling new business models that bear huge potentials for their users. But little is known about their actual use by Austrian companies, the particular value they create and their impact on either side of the markets they match. We aim to contribute to the literature by developing and conducting a new enterprise survey. Based on a classification of the different types of digital platforms relevant to business, the focus will be on the following research questions: First, we analyse the scope of business use of various digital platforms ("adoption"). Second, we specifically ask enterprises whether and to what extent they use digital platforms to outsource labour input. Finally, we investigate how the enterprises perceive the impact of the use of digital platforms on the kind and intensity of competition as well as the underlying value they create for both, the firms (in terms of safeguarding or improving competitiveness), and the consumers (in terms of reduced price per quality of goods and services).