IT service businesses can achieve economies of scale and scope faster than in traditional product businesses. In particular, as IT service platforms will become the founding infrastructure of our economies, the analysis and understanding of the value that a service platform can generate is of...

Many IT service platforms (e.g., cloud computing platforms) are built as closed systems. They do not allow their customers to interoperate with other platforms or port their data to other platforms. As switching to different system is costly, customer of a closed IT system can be considered...