Value-creating and Value-eroding Decoupling in B2B Platforms: A Multiple Case Study

This chapter represents a multiple case study on value-creating and value-eroding decoupling in business-to-business (B2B) platforms. B2B platforms have been progressively transforming customer behaviour with major implications for existing value chains and business ecosystems. For instance, platform players typically act as both complementors and competitors to incumbents through the business model innovation of decoupling (i.e., the breaking of links in customer relation processes). The purpose of this chapter is to identify, explain and analyse how B2B platforms utilise decoupling to disrupt value creation in business ecosystems. The broad selection of cases illustrates the different types of decoupling, including value-creating and value-eroding activities, that target different stages of the customer processes. The case firms represent different industrial sectors. Thus, the study demonstrates how decoupling is a more complex phenomenon in the B2B context compared to business-to-consumer (B2C) market context. The findings show that B2B platforms have targeted multiple stages of customer processes to effectively create value for customers, stakeholders and the business ecosystems. It has become evident that B2B platforms can also decouple value-eroding activities by removing time, place and resource constraints.