The Impact of Digital Platforms and Networks on Companies and Markets: Empirical Analysis of the Financial Services Sector

The dissertation is structured as follows. The first paper, a single author paper, examines the impact of platform size on payment platform value using a qualitative research method. The second paper, co-authored by Dr. Dr. Stefanie Steinhauser, uses a quantitative research method to analyze the influence of platforms on coopetition in financial markets as well as on the factors that influence network development in financial markets. The third paper, co-authored by Dr. Dr. Stefanie Steinhauser, Erich Renz, and Alexander Zanon, uses a quantitative research approach to examine the individual factors of business models in terms of their influence on the success of digital platforms. Financial markets serve as the empirical setting of my dissertation. I chose the financial sector for my research as it is a highly regulated market and thus insights can be gained on the impact of digital platforms on regulated markets. In addition, financial markets worldwide are currently affected by the transformation through digital platforms, which provides an ideal environment to investigate what impact digital platforms have on market and competition structures