Why do Digital Platforms succeed or fail? - A Literature Review on Success and Failure Factors

In the course of digitalization, digital platforms are unleashing their full disruptive potential and are already dominating the first industries (e.g., hotel industry). As a result of this success, more and more companies want to build their own platforms and participate in the success. However, building and operating a digital platform involves multiple challenges and most of such ambitions fail. Since most digital platforms fail, strategic leadership of digital platforms must consider both success factors and reasons for platform failure. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic literature analysis and identified 24 success as well as failure factors in 9 dimensions. From a scientific perspective, the article provides a structured analysis of success and failure factors of digital platforms, which previously did not exist in literature. Practitioners can use the resulting knowledge base to successfully manage platform activities and avoid pitfalls.