2008 Volume 7 Issue 6 Pages 339-408
From the perspective of managers standing on the front line of the market, platform-building mechanisms are systematized to generate market dominance and profitability as a product becomes more commoditized. Newly defined platforms appear in open environments where integral and modular architectures coexist and the speed of technological dissemination widely varies. This paper examines Japanese cases of DVD players and recording media, where commoditization has occurred in the extreme, and compares these with the cases of DVD media observed in the United States. The objective is to clarify the progress of platform building and skillful utilization of differences in the speed of technological dissemination. Both cases are full turnkey solution-type platforms for cooperating with NIES/BRICs companies and generating sources of profit and market dominance by controlling open markets from within the integration platforms. This paper’s definition of a platform framework is extremely useful in formulating 21st-century business models for taking advantage of the integrated organizational ability of Japanese companies in the global market.
