Publication Type
PhD Dissertation
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
9-2025
Abstract
This dissertation examines the strategic value and performance implications for traditional value-chain firms (TVCFs) that adopt digital multi-sided platforms (DMSPs) to augment their existing businesses. DMSPs facilitate interactions among multiple user groups through digital intermediaries, generating self-reinforcing network effects that enhance value creation, reduce operational and transaction costs, and enable collective innovation. Despite the prevalence of platform-based firms, 60% of global unicorns and 7 of the world’s 10 most valuable companies operate digital platforms, empirical research on the value-creation mechanisms of DMSPs remains limited. Anchored in the resource-based view and platform theory, this study investigates how DMSP moderates the relationship between key strategic drivers of firm value. A quantitative research design is employed, using a 23-year panel dataset comprising 871 global firms (2000–2023). The analysis focuses on four strategic drivers with theoretical and empirical links to firm value: revenue, operating expense, R&D intensity, and ESG score. DMSP adoption is modeled as a moderating variable to evaluate whether it alters the relationship of these variables on firm value. The findings reveal that DMSPs significantly amplify the positive effect of revenue on firm value, while diminishing the impact of R&D intensity. However, DMSP adoption does not significantly influence the relationships between ESG score or operating expense and firm value.
Keywords
Digital platform, multi-sided, value-chain, network effect, digitalization, R&D, ESG, revenue, operating expense, moderating effect
Degree Awarded
Business Administration
Discipline
Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Operations and Supply Chain Management
Supervisor(s)
GOMULYA, David Matius
First Page
1
Last Page
135
Publisher
Singapore Management University
City or Country
Singapore
Citation
LIM, Chee Pheng.
The moderating role of digital multi-sided platform on the firm value of traditional value-chain firms. (2025). 1-135.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/800
Copyright Owner and License
Author
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons