PLATFORM-DEPENDENT ENTREPRENEURS: PARTICIPANTS IN AN EXPANDING UNIVERSE OF PLATFORMS?

The article Platform-dependent entrepreneurs: Power asymmetries, risks, and strategies in the platform economy drew on the intermediary business model to review the damaging actions that platform firms may employ with entrepreneurs. This exchange argues that platform firms may treat entrepreneurs differently on other platform types-particularly ones where complex relationships may cause participants and platforms to become mutually dependent, or where the platform's position depends less on extracting revenue directly from participants. I suggest that particular business models might facilitate the use of alternative strategic actions that are more benign toward entrepreneurs. These situations can determine additional boundary conditions for this emerging entrepreneurship theory. I provide examples from three platform types where alternative platform behaviors can be observed: platforms based on a sharing economy model; platforms that cultivate product lines or a wider ecosystem of services; and platforms that build communities to support their business model. These situations can mitigate platform firms' tendencies to treat platform participants as pure revenue sources (and can promote different treatments of platform participants). Many business models involve complex multi-actor relationships that can be designed to create different ways of generating revenue. These design affordances can then support broader strategic actions.