INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS, 23(1), 2018 ISSN: 1083-4346 Maximizing Strategic Alliances in the Multi-Sided Platform Firms Adhi Setyo Santosoa,b,* and Sari Wahyunib a School of Business, Department of Business Administration President University Cikarang, West Java 17550, Indonesia
[email protected] b Faculty of Economics and Business, Graduate School of Management Universitas Indonesia Depok, West Java 16424, Indonesia
[email protected] ABSTRACT The growth of multi-sided platform (MSP) firms, especially those with high Internet utilization such as Uber, Tokopedia, Go-Jek as well as other sharing economy firms, started to catch the attention of strategic management scholars. Since multi-sided platforms have more than one distinct user side with various role in the business ecosystem, the strategic alliances between the MSP and its platform members may play a significant role in increasing the user base as well as the value of the platform itself. However, there are still few researches that discuss the strategic alliances within the MSP. For this reason, this conceptual article aims at mapping the strategic alliances literature relevant to the MSP context through in-depth literature review. Two case analyses from high growth MSP firms in Indonesia are presented to explain this phenomenon. JEL Classifications: O3, Y8 Keywords: multi-sided platform, strategic alliances, resource-based view, network effects, platform strategy, innovation, technological change, sharing economy INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS, 23(1), 2018 27 I. INTRODUCTION In the current information era, interconnection is growing at a massive scale. Instead of creating some IT products, digital startups tend to build platforms that connects one or more social group (Alstyne, Parker, and Choudary, 2016).