The Role of Digital Platforms in Resident-Centric Housing Concepts

Abstract

Platform-enabled services targeted to make everyday life easier have become increasingly available in recent decades, which in some cases challenge traditional ways of owning and working. However, comprehensive data-driven value creation opportunities, which are seamlessly connected to various needs in the everyday life of citizens or residents, are still largely untapped and unstudied. This article investigates value creation opportunities for holistic housing concepts with related ecosystems designed to combine the physical environment of residents along with a digital platform. The novelty of this study builds on a holistic understanding of value co-creation in housing, enabled by digital platforms at the ecosystem level. The empirical study focuses on a qualitative multi-case study of four holistic and resident-centric service concepts, which all include digital platforms. The main findings are concluded as follows: First, digital platforms enable various value creation opportunities in resident-centric housing concepts and related ecosystems. Second, exploring strategic choices regarding competitiveness, innovation, and growth revealed that digital platforms played various roles such as informative, supportive, integrative, or even embedded in novel housing as a service platform concepts, which call for totally new orchestration and business models across traditional industrial and ecosystem boundaries. Third, in light of the basic mechanisms for ensuring competitiveness and growth in data and a platform economy, we identify two main alternative strategic approaches. The findings serve both practitioners and researchers exploring opportunities of a platform economy, with a particular benefit for those in largely unstudied housing markets.

Keywords

• digital platforms
• housing
• platform design
• platform ecosystems
• s-d logic
• value creation and capture