How Social Interdependence Impacts Individual Complementor Engagement in Platform Ecosystems

Academy of Management Proceedings, vol. 2026

Abstract

A key driver the success of platform ecosystems is the engagement of complementors, independent third parties who contribute to the ecosystem’s shared value proposition. Complementors can be firms, but are often individuals like software programmers, data analysts, and other experts who contribute products, services or specific skills. Prior research has mostly overlooked the role of individuals in ecosystems. We address this gap by examining how perceived interdependencies influence individual complementors’ decisions to engage in a platform ecosystem. Building on prior research on technological and economic interdependence, we especially investigate the level of social interdependence preferred by individual complementors. Based on social exchange theory (SET), we hypothesize that when economic or technological interdependencies are high, complementors prefer a high level of social interdependence. As moderating effects, we examine individual-level characteristics social trust, self-efficacy, and risk proneness. We test our hypotheses using a pre-registered choice-based conjoint experiment with a sample of app developers (N=316). Our data confirms the important role of social interdependence in complementor engagement. Overall, our study contributes to a better understanding of the preferences of individual complementors and provides insights into how to engage this overlooked stakeholder group in platform ecosystems.

Authors 2

1. Frank T. Piller Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University

2. Kathleen Diener

   Hochschule Niederrhein

   Affiliation as printed

   Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences