Special Topic: Digital Platforms and Ecosystems

This course equips students with advanced knowledge and skills for designing, participating in, and leveraging platform businesses across industries. Today’s most powerful and valuable organisations operate as platforms connecting buyers and sellers, or users and advertisers, or users and third-party developers. Students examine how organisations create and capture value through platform-based business models, focusing on the critical intersection of technical architecture, governance, and business strategy. Drawing on cases of various platform types, from markets to social media, gig economy, product-service hybrid, software and data platforms, students will learn how to launch platforms, transform existing products into platforms, and compete on and against platforms. The course emphasises evidence-based frameworks for platform strategy, ecosystem participation, and value creation while addressing contemporary challenges of trust, safety, privacy, and cultural responsiveness. Through current research and industry case studies, students develop strategic insights and practical competencies essential for bridging technical and business domains in platform initiatives within New Zealand's bicultural context and the global digital economy.