Transformer(s) of the Logistics Industry - Enabling Logistics Companies to Excel with Digital Platforms

Platformization is a prevailing trend that changes industries at their core. The rise and dominance of platform-based companies require incumbent companies and start-ups to rethink how they approach that novel challenge and leverage its full potential. To successfully steer and initiate this digitally enabled industry transformation, even in traditional industries like logistics, the incumbent companies require IT and specific platform design support. However, designing a digital platform is a complex task riddled with design options, potential pitfalls, and complex underlying mechanisms. Consequently, research and practice require tools to leverage past design knowledge and generate digital platforms in a goal-oriented fashion. This paper addresses precisely that issue as we report on a design science research study that developed a visual inquiry tool for digital platform design. Ultimately, the visual inquiry tool provides researchers and practitioners with the means to develop digital platforms more efficiently and strategically.