The Platform Economy Matures: Exploring and Measuring Pervasiveness and Power

Martin Kenney, Dafna Bearson, and John Zysman

BRIE Working Paper Series, November 2019 (revised June 2020)

Platforms are an emblem and embodiment of the digital era just as factories were of the industrial revolution. Digital platforms, through their power in their respective ecosystems, are intermediating and contributing to the reorganization of ever-greater segments of the economy and society. As this occurs, existing firms, jobs, and labor relationships are being displaced or transformed, even while new tasks and enterprises are emerging, and existing firms are adjusting. This paper explores the ways in which platform firms are insinuating themselves into ever more parts of the economy. Download the full paper.