Invitation: Research Talk by Professor Dr. Youngjin Yoo
Title: The Architecture of Digital Objects and Platform Ecosystems: The Emerging Decentralized Layered Modular Architecture and Evolving Platform Ecosystems
Date: Monday, January 15th 2024 from 11-12 pm CET
Place: SRG 2.028
Abstract – Digital platforms harness the benefits of a loosely coupled structure of a layered modular architecture (LMA) and the generativity of open innovation. However, as these platforms continue to expand in both size and scope, negative externalities emerge. In this essay, I elucidate the impact of the architecture of digital assets that underpin these platforms on the negative externalities they create. Specifically, I demonstrate how cloud-based digital assets and their property control rights shape how values are created and distributed in these platforms. Crucially, the architecture of digital shapes who can exercise property control rights over those digital assets. Based on the analysis, I propose a decentralized layered modular architecture as a crucial remedy to mitigate the negative externalities of LMA-based platforms. This emerging architecture should incorporate additional decentralized layers of digital identity, personal data, and models. Crucially, the proposed architecture should facilitate delineating property rights for digital assets to enable efficient, effective, and equitable governance of these platforms. Finally, I discuss the theoretical, methodological, social, and policy implications of the emergence of decentralized LMA.
Bio:
Youngjin Yoo is the Elizabeth M. and William C. Treuhaft Professor in Entrepreneurship, Associate Dean of Research and Faculty, and Professor of Information Systems at the Department of Design & Innovation at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. An Association of Information Systems Fellow, he is also WBS Distinguished Research Environment Professor at Warwick Business School, UK. His 2010 Information Systems Research article is the most influential paper in digital innovation according to Google Scholar. He has received over $5 million in research grants from National Science Foundation, NASA, James S. and John L. Knight Foundation, the Department of Commerce, the National Research Foundation of Korea, and Samsung Electronics. His work was published at leading academic journals such as MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Organization Science, the Communications of the ACM, and the Academy of Management Journal among others. He is the Senior Editor of MIS Quarterly, the Journal of AIS, and the Journal Information Technology, and is on the editorial board of Organization Science, the Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, and Information and Organization.