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Systems
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Digital Platform Ecosystems and Platform Governance
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Digital Platform Ecosystems and Platform Governance

A Special Issue of Systems (ISSN 2079-8954) belonging to the section "Systems Practice in Social Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 April 2027 | Viewed by 2754

Editor

Dr. Jean-Éric Pelet

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Information Systems and Marketing, KMCMS, Paris, France
Interests: digital consumer behavior; information system; e-commerce platforms;social networks; knowledge management; Web3; live shopping; group buying; gamification; wine; IOT; sensorial marketing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Digital platforms have evolved into complex ecosystems, reshaping industries through new models of value creation, coordination, and governance. This Special Issue explores the design, governance, and societal impact of digital platform ecosystems, with a focus on emerging technologies and sustainable, inclusive models. We invite research that examines how platforms leverage advanced tools—such as generative AI for personalized engagement and resource optimization—to enhance ecosystem resilience and user value. Special attention is given to frugal digital innovation, exploring how platforms can deliver high value with minimal resource use, and to the role of Web3 and decentralized technologies in redefining ownership, trust, and participation in sectors such as agriculture and luxury goods. We welcome interdisciplinary contributions that address platform governance challenges, ethical considerations, and the socio-technical dynamics of platform ecosystems in both mature and emerging contexts. Studies may include, but are not limited to, case-based research, theoretical frameworks, and policy-oriented analyses that advance our understanding of how digital platforms can be governed to foster innovation, sustainability, and equity.

Dr. Jean-Eric Pelet
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • digital platform ecosystems
  • platform governance
  • generative AI
  • frugal innovation
  • Web3 technologies

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 681 KB  
Article
Hyperreal Differential Order in Douyin’s Tuwei Ecology: A Socio-Technical Systems Analysis of Algorithmic Visibility
by Tongyue Feng, Yixuan Zhang, Xiaomin Xie and Xiaoxia Zhu
Systems 2026, 14(7), 831; https://doi.org/10.3390/systems14070831 - 12 Jul 2026
Viewed by 463
Abstract
Recommendation systems reorganize culture by linking classification, visibility, and value. This article analyzes Douyin’s #tuwei ecology as a socio-technical system in which platform architecture, creator formatting, audience evaluation, and urban-rural symbolic hierarchies interact through recursive feedback. We formalize this system as four coupled [...] Read more.
Recommendation systems reorganize culture by linking classification, visibility, and value. This article analyzes Douyin’s #tuwei ecology as a socio-technical system in which platform architecture, creator formatting, audience evaluation, and urban-rural symbolic hierarchies interact through recursive feedback. We formalize this system as four coupled operators—commensuration, sign packaging, metricized valuation, and reception feedback—and derive two observable indices: an item-level transfer-efficiency ratio and a class-level diffusion–appreciation asymmetry index. Using 123,300 public #tuwei videos collected between May and November 2024, multimodal coding of 500 videos, and sentiment analysis of 61,284 comments, we identify a stable diffusion-appreciation asymmetry. Practice-oriented rural videos receive relatively strong approval after encounter, but they diffuse less widely than spectacle-oriented performances optimized for rapid recognition, ironic forwarding, and interaction density. Corpus-level tests (χ2, N = 123,300; Cramér’s V≈0.32) and an outlier-sensitivity analysis confirm the pattern independently of the coded-sample size. To explain this pattern, we propose hyperreal differential order (HDO), a systems concept describing how platform infrastructures repackage embedded cultural practices into feed-compatible sign forms and then differentially amplify them across segmented attention circuits. We position HDO against algorithmic visibility, platformization, and metric power, showing what each leaves underspecified. The study offers a mechanism-based account of how short-video systems reorganize vernacular culture, symbolic power, and interpretive authority without relying on overt exclusion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Platform Ecosystems and Platform Governance)
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30 pages, 3370 KB  
Article
Multimodal Information Risk Flow in Short-Video Crisis Environments
by Shijing Huang and Jun Han
Systems 2026, 14(6), 644; https://doi.org/10.3390/systems14060644 - 4 Jun 2026
Viewed by 670
Abstract
Public emergencies are increasingly shared and discussed on short-video platforms, where videos, user interactions, and timing influence how social risks become visible and spread. This study examines a major short-video platform in China and proposes a Multimodal Information Risk Flow (MIRF) framework to [...] Read more.
Public emergencies are increasingly shared and discussed on short-video platforms, where videos, user interactions, and timing influence how social risks become visible and spread. This study examines a major short-video platform in China and proposes a Multimodal Information Risk Flow (MIRF) framework to understand how risk signals appear, are categorized, and evolve over time during emergencies. We analysed 250,100 anonymized video–comment records collected between 2022 and 2024, combining text, images, audio, user behavior, and author information to study patterns of risk representation and amplification. Our results show that social risk spreads unevenly over time and is strongly influenced by the type of content, with toxic comments leading to faster and larger cascades. General engagement metrics play a smaller role, and shorter times to peak activity are consistently linked to larger risk cascades. These findings highlight that social risk on short-video platforms is multimodal and temporally concentrated, and caution is needed when generalizing results beyond similar platforms and regulatory contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Platform Ecosystems and Platform Governance)
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24 pages, 2305 KB  
Article
E-Commerce and the Spatial Rebalancing of Market Entry: A Multi-Mechanism Analysis of Urban–Rural Market Vitality in China
by Manru Zhao and Yujia Lu
Systems 2026, 14(5), 567; https://doi.org/10.3390/systems14050567 - 15 May 2026
Viewed by 500
Abstract
The rapid expansion of e-commerce has transformed market access in developing economies, yet its impact on the spatial structure of market participation remains insufficiently understood. While existing studies primarily examine welfare outcomes such as income growth and consumption smoothing, few investigate how digital [...] Read more.
The rapid expansion of e-commerce has transformed market access in developing economies, yet its impact on the spatial structure of market participation remains insufficiently understood. While existing studies primarily examine welfare outcomes such as income growth and consumption smoothing, few investigate how digital platforms reshape the balance of market entry between urban and rural areas. Drawing on New Economic Geography and platform economics theory, this study proposes that e-commerce development rebalances urban–rural market vitality through three associative pathways: alleviating rural capital constraints, improving rural innovation environments, and promoting agricultural-industry agglomeration. Using county-level panel data covering 2725 Chinese counties from 2011 to 2022, we employ a Double Machine Learning (DML) framework to examine the association between designation as an “E-commerce into Rural Comprehensive Demonstration County” and changes in the urban–rural market vitality balance (URMAR). The results indicate that demonstration county designation is associated with a statistically significant reduction in urban–rural market disparity, as measured by both the Theil index and the absolute difference in new enterprise registrations. The directional URMAR indicator further reveals that this convergence is driven primarily by accelerated rural enterprise formation. Subsample analysis confirms that the rebalancing interpretation holds across counties with different baseline market structures. Mechanism analysis provides suggestive evidence consistent with all three proposed associative pathways. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that these effects are stronger in economically developed eastern regions, in counties linked to higher-tier cities, and in secondary and tertiary industries. These findings advance a market-structure perspective on digital development that complements existing welfare-based approaches and offer policy insights for fostering balanced regional development through targeted digital and complementary investments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Platform Ecosystems and Platform Governance)
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