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| Detailed information |
| Pre-requisites |
SE BC2: Induction: Team development UND SE BC1: Foundations of management UND KS BC3: Foundations of management science
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| Original study plan |
Master's programme Leadership and Innovation in Organizations 2024W |
| Objectives |
The offering that particularly sets universities apart from other educational institutions is the intimate link between the production (i.e. research) and diffusion (i.e. teaching) of knowledge. In this seminar students learn by becoming producers of academic knowledge. Specifically, the emergence of a platform economy, an ongoing development of arguably grave societal and economic relevance, is ex¬plored through student’s own research projects.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this seminar, students will have the ability to:
- LO1: Drawing on their systematically gathered data and personal experience as participant observers, students understand the principles underlying the platform economy.
- LO2: Students are capable of analyzing and evaluate platform practices and with a particular focus on identifying and assessing their economic and managerial relevance as well as their societal impact.
- LO3: Students are capable of using participant observation and ethnographic methods to independently conduct a single case study of a digital platform.
- LO4: Students have increased their capacity for observing, acquiring data, experimenting, interpreting, critically evaluating and, as a result, for developing theory.
- LO5: Students are capable of comparing different platforms (i.e. structures, practices, business models etc.), and inferring general principles and questions—thereby moving from a single-case to a multi-case approach.
- LO6: Students are capable of acquiring knowledge from a variety of sources, ranging from advanced scholarly literature to applied practi¬tioner discourses. They can critically evaluate this knowledge, creatively recombine it and thus responsibly formulate, illustrate, elaborate on and defend their own opinion about digital transformation and the platform economy.
- LO7: Students understand the nature of scientific knowledge and can contribute to its production.
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| Subject |
The Internet, arguably the most advanced disruptive technology of our time, is giving rise to a new type of economy: the so-called platform economy, in which product platforms and digital exchange platforms have moved to the center stage. Focusing on the latter, exchange platforms, this course addresses
- platforms as new digital exchange infrastructures,
- platform-hosted crowds as an arguably new type of collective actor,
- and platform- and crowd-based organizing as a new frontier for managing in the digital era.
Crowd-based organizing is essentially concerned with sustainably mobilizing large numbers of distributed actors (i.e. the crowd) and structuring their activities in order to achieve specific purposes, thus requiring governance and business models. Platform-hosted crowds engage in a large variety of productive activities: Prominent business-to-customer examples include crowdbased ride hailing (e.g. Uber, Lyft) and accommodation (e.g. Airbnb, HomeAway); as exemplary business-to-business cases, consider creative industries, specifically crowdsourced graphic design (e.g. 99designs) and crowd-produced stock photo (e.g. iStock, Shutterstock). Furthermore, crowds provide capital and labor: as for the former, so-called crowdfunding ranges from investment to donation (e.g. Kickstarter, Indiegogo); as for the latter, crowds rendering unspecific services (e.g. MTurk, Upwork) act as digital workforces that, upon request, execute simple or complex tasks, specified and paid for by individual or corporate customers.
A growing body of research on how these platforms operate, sheds light on how digital platforms run by relatively small organizations create significant monetary and non-monetary value through mobilizing and organizing large platform-hosted crowds. However, these platforms evolve quickly. While some questions appear to have been answered, many more have arisen—in particular with respect to the societal implications of the digital economy, now frequently referred to as platform capitalism.
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| Criteria for evaluation |
- Presence in class is mandatory.
- The grade is based on two papers and class participation
- Ethnography report (75 points max., 38 points min.)
- LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4, LO6, LO7,
- Hypotheses paper (15 points max., 8 points min.)
- Class participation (10 points max.)
- To pass this course, in each category (except class participation) the minimum amount of points must be reached. If so, total points translate into the final grade as follows:
| Points | 100-87 | 86-75 | 74-63 | 62-50 | 49-0 |
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| Grades | Excellent "Sehr Gut" | Good "Gut" | Satisfying "Befriedigend" | Sufficient "Genügend" | Fail "Nicht genügend" |
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| Methods |
Students conduct ethnographic studies of platform- and crowd-based organizing. They begin by con-ducting single-case studies—each student researching one specific platform through participant observation—and eventually proceed to cross-case comparison to arrive at more general insights into crowd-enabling platforms and the concomitant platform-enabled crowds.
In-class sessions are predominantly about sharing of experiences and insights among students, and guidance and coaching from the seminar instructor. Students arrive well prepared at each session.
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| Language |
English |
| Study material |
Kozinets, RV. 2002. The Field behind the Screen: Using Netnography for Marketing Research in Online Communities. Journal of Marketing Research, 39/1: 61-72.
Please prepare for the sessions as follows:
- 1. Session: Introduction and Kick-off
- 2. Session: Reflections and Coaching I
- Carefully read: Kozinets, RV. 2002. The Field behind the Screen: Using Netnography for Marketing Research in Online Communities. Journal of Marketing Research, 39/1: 61-72. The article is available for download here.
- Prepare a first draft of your ethnography report and maintain your research diary.
- 3. Session: Reflections and Coaching II
- Prepare an advanced draft of your ethnography report and maintain your research diary.
- 4. Session: Single-Case Findings and Conclusions
- Prepare an advanced draft of your ethnography report and maintain your research diary.
- Upload your ethnography report here.
- 5. Session: Multi-Case Findings and Conclusions
- Upload your hypotheses paper here.
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| Changing subject? |
No |
| Further information |
For quality assurance and improvement purposes, please participate in all JKU course evaluations and surveys!
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| Corresponding lecture |
986CABUCB4S19: CB4 Understanding the digital economy
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