Abstract
To adapt to digitalization challenges and growth, many complementors are joining multi-sided platforms (hereafter, referred to as platforms) that form an ecosystem to co-create and appropriate value. Do complementors gain benefits from joining platforms? Theoretical arguments and empirical results remain mixed. As a nested concern, this study proposes a cross-level framework to illustrate how the performance of complementors is influenced by their capabilities and platform competitive advantages simultaneously. To run hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), each platform was paired with at least four complementors that formed platform-level data. Empirical data from 33 platforms and 154 of their complementors indicated that the higher potential in value co-creation of a platform is, the stronger the competitiveness of the platform. The capabilities of the complementors had a positive impact on their performance. The competitiveness of a platform had a positive direct cross-level impact on the performance of complementors. However, platform competitiveness demonstrated a negative cross-level moderating effect on the positive relationship between capabilities and the performance of a complementor.