Market competition in the platform economy: new insights, integrative framework and research agenda

Digital platforms are transforming traditional business models and practices across industries, setting new foundations for market competition. As the platform economy expands, new challenges emerge around innovation, stakeholder engagement, sustainability, and governance. This editorial introduces the special issue on ‘Managing the Platform Economy and Market Competition in the Digitalization Era’, offering a synthesis of contemporary articles, identifying key themes of competitiveness in digitally mediated, multi-sided markets. The special issue features a collection of 23 high-caliber articles that reflect the latest advancements and rigorous scholarships in the field. In particular, the articles cover four broad themes: innovative business strategies, stakeholder behaviors, sustainability integration, and adaptive governance. We propose an integrative framework that highlights the interdependence of these thematic aspects and illustrates how platform strategies, trust mechanisms, regulatory adaptation, and sustainability practices collectively shape market outcomes. The special issue advances theoretical discussions on platform business model innovation, ecosystem orchestration, stakeholder trust and engagement, technological transparency, and ethical governance. Our special issue exposes gaps, particularly in generalizability, impact assessment, and regulatory alignment that call for deeper empirical and conceptual inquiry. We conclude by outlining a future research agenda that prioritizes cross-context theorization, robust evaluation of sustainability initiatives, and new models of governance to address the evolving complexities of the platform economy, particularly considering the transformative impact of Generative AI. This editorial provides an integrative foundation for scholars and practitioners seeking to understand and enhance market competition in the digital era.