Platforms, Volume 4, Issue 1 (March 2026) – 4 articles

Digital ecosystems are sociotechnical systems that connect various business actors via digital platforms. While they drive digital transformation across domains, their conceptual design remains challenging due to the need to address legal, technical, and business aspects simultaneously. Our research investigates which modeling concepts are relevant for this purpose and to what extent existing modeling techniques support their representation. A survey with 32 experienced practitioners and researchers revealed a diverse set of relevant views, elements, cross-cutting concerns, and principles. Some concepts—such as ecosystem overview and value exchanges—were broadly accepted, whereas others—including legal aspects and cooperation mechanisms—raised controversy. Based on the survey results, we developed an assessment framework and applied it in an action research study to evaluate five established modeling techniques. Despite their strengths, none of the techniques supporting all concepts were deemed highly relevant. The findings underline the need for a unified modeling technique grounded in shared concepts and multi-view representations. The proposed framework defines requirements for modeling techniques to support digital ecosystem design and enables their systematic assessment. Full article

China’s urbanization has entered a stage of high-quality development, yet persistent urban expansion and the rapid rise of the digital platform economy have driven up energy consumption, making the decoupling of energy use from economic growth increasingly urgent. To address this challenge, this study examines how new urbanization influences the decoupling of energy consumption from economic growth in China and explores its underlying mechanisms. Using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces spanning 2014–2023, we employ a two-way fixed-effects model to test our hypotheses. The results indicate that new urbanization significantly suppresses energy-growth decoupling: a 1% increase in the new urbanization index reduces the decoupling index by 0.686 units. The expansion of the digital platform economy intensifies this suppression effect. Concurrently, technological innovation and government support play mediating roles. The study thus concludes that promoting high-quality new urbanization, accelerating technological progress, and strengthening government investment are key pathways to advancing decoupling. Full article

In digital marketplaces, trust in e-commerce platforms has evolved from a protective heuristic into a powerful mechanism of behavioral conditioning. This review interrogates how trust cues such as star ratings, fulfillment badges, and platform reputation shape consumer cognition, systematically displace critical evaluation, and create asymmetries in perceived quality. Drawing on over 47 high-quality studies across experimental, survey, and modeling methodologies, we identify seven interlocking dynamics: (1) cognitive outsourcing via platform trust, (2) reputational arbitrage by low-quality sellers, (3) consumer loyalty despite disappointment, (4) heuristic conditioning through trust signals, (5) trust inflation through ratings saturation, (6) false security masking structural risks, and (7) the shift in consumer trust from brands to platforms. Anchored in dual process theory, this synthesis positions trust not merely as a transactional enabler but as a socio-technical artifact engineered by platforms to guide attention, reduce scrutiny, and manage decision-making at scale. Eventually, platform trust functions as both lubricant and leash: streamlining choice while subtly constraining agency, with profound implications for digital commerce, platform governance, and consumer autonomy. Full article

Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) are often introduced as platforms expected to deliver strategic value through workforce analytics, decision support, and alignment with organizational goals. Yet evidence consistently shows that line managers’ use remains confined to administrative functions. This paper addresses this paradox by reframing it through the lens of the attitude-behavior gap (ABG), a concept established in consumer research to describe the disconnect between favorable attitudes and actual behaviors. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 25 line managers in five UK organizations, the study identifies three themes: HRIS as an Administrative Rather than Strategic Tool, Organizational Identity and Role Expectations, and Confidence Gaps and Habitual Routines. Together, these themes illustrate how supportive attitudes toward HRIS coexist with restricted behavioral engagement, sustained by cultural scripts, situational barriers, and ingrained routines. Theoretically, the study extends the ABG beyond consumer contexts into organizational technology use, challenging the linear assumptions of dominant adoption models such as TAM and UTAUT. Practically, it highlights the need for cultural reframing of HR’s role, user-centered system design, and sustained training and integration efforts to enable more strategic engagement. By framing HRIS adoption as a context-dependent practice shaped by organizational roles and behavioral patterns, the paper offers deeper insight into why favorable attitudes toward innovation frequently fall short of producing substantive engagement. Full article