More and more often, we are astonished by the fact that platforms like Google or Facebook keep expanding in new fields and, eventually, new markets. How do they do it?
The paper I published in the 15th European Academy of Management (EURAM) conference, Value Care: Managing the emerging. The case of developer sipport formus, analyzes how platforms like Google or Facebook manage emerging value. The paper, now available on-line studies a great number of discussions in on-line developer support forums. If finds that, surprisingly, not many problems are actually solved in what initially appears to be a problem-solving process engaging the platform and its developer community.
Instead, the discussions tend to be open ended and the platform seeks to qualify requests according to actual or potential value creation and value delivery.
The study models this process, conceptualising different types of contributions and proposing a way to manage the flow of on-line forums.
