While many organizations have successfully leveraged big data analytics capabilities to improve their performance, our understanding is limited on whether and how big data analytics capabilities affect social innovation in organizations. Based on the organizational information processing theory and the organizational learning theory, this study aims to investigate how big data analytics capabilities support social innovation, and how knowledge ambidexterity mediates this relationship. A total of 354 high-tech companies in China, this study shows that big data analytics management, big data analytics technology, and big data analytics personnel capabilities all have positive effects on social innovation. In addition, both knowledge exploration and knowledge exploitation play a mediating role in this process. Furthermore, a polynomial regression and response surface analysis shows that social innovation increases when knowledge exploration and knowledge exploitation are highly consistent but declines when knowledge exploration and knowledge exploitation are inconsistent. This study not only provides new perspectives for understanding how big data analytics capabilities contribute to social innovation, complementing the existing literature on big data analytics capabilities and social innovation, but also provides important practical guidance on how organizations can develop big data analytics capabilities to improve social innovation and solve social problems in the digital age.

In the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) era, platform enterprises face the critical challenge of balancing flexibility and controllability to sustain competitive advantage. Existing studies have examined these two dimensions separately but offer limited insight into their synergistic mechanisms within complex adaptive ecosystems. Drawing on the structural, cognitive, and relational dimensions of social capital theory, with a particular emphasis on institutional-level collaborative social capital among platform enterprises and their supply-chain partners, this study employs dynamic fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to identify the configurational pathways through which Chinese platform enterprises achieve high sustainable development performance. Using panel data from Chinese A-share listed platform enterprises (2014–2024), we identify three equifinal configurational pathways sufficient for high sustainable development performance: (1) a cognitive-relational alliance-driven path, (2) a structural-relational hybrid synergy path, (3) a structural-cognitive flexible innovation path. Innovation value consensus emerges as a core condition across all pathways. These configurations are sufficient for platforms to exhibit flexible market responsiveness and strategic controllability under varying environmental conditions. The study advances social capital theory by demonstrating the multidimensional, synergistic, and context-sensitive nature of flexibility-controllability coupling in platform governance. It also provides managers with actionable insights for tailoring social capital investments to specific regional and strategic contexts.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how coopetition between platform enterprises and their complementors influences sustainable competitive advantage (SCA). It seeks to clarify the mechanisms through which coopetition influences SCA by examining the mediating role of organizational agility (operational adjustment agility (OAA) and market capitalizing agility (MCA)) and the moderating role of technological uncertainty (TU). Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on paradox theory and dynamic capabilities theory, the study develops and tests a moderated mediation model. The hypotheses are empirically examined using survey data collected from 442 platform enterprises in China. Findings: The results reveal that: (1) Coopetition has an inverted U-shaped relationship with platform SCA, indicating that either too little or too much coopetition can diminish competitive advantage; (2) Both OAA and MCA partially mediate the coopetition–SCA relationship; (3) Technological uncertainty negatively moderates the effects of both types of organizational agility on SCA, weakening their positive impact. Robustness test also supports the above results. Originality/value: This research offers a novel theoretical lens integrating paradox theory and dynamic capabilities theory to explain the nonlinear relationship between coopetition and SCA. It provides empirical insights into the mediating mechanisms of organizational agility and highlights the contextual role of technological uncertainty. The findings offer practical guidance for platform enterprises seeking to strategically manage coopetition in the digital era to enhance long-term competitive advantage.

Currently, intelligent agent applications generally face the bottleneck of “strong single-agent intelligence but weak group collaboration,” making it difficult to form systemic ecological advantages through network effects. Addressing this practical dilemma, this paper adopts the platform ecosystem perspective, defines three dimensions of intelligent agent network ecological advantage—resource complementarity, governance coordination, and dynamic adaptability—and systematically reveals its nonlinear formation mechanism based on the coupling of self-organization, emergence, and governance. Taking 2024 Chinese listed platform enterprises as the sample and employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), this study identifies three multi-factor equivalent configurational paths that drive high ecological advantage: the resource-open collaborative type achieves synergistic amplification and leap through deep fusion of resource openness; the algorithm-incentive-regulation type drives asymmetric leadership through technological depth and governance response; and the resource-governance-adaptive type constructs resilience barriers in highly uncertain environments through comprehensive and balanced configurations. This paper constructs an active symbiosis theory of intelligent agent ecosystems, advancing ecosystem theory from the traditional “passive complementarity” paradigm to a new “active symbiosis” paradigm, revealing multiple concurrent causality and asymmetric causality, clarifying the dual role of regulatory sensitivity as both a “bridge” and an “amplifier,” and providing a novel theoretical framework and analytical paradigm for platform ecosystem governance in the GenAI and multi-agent era.

Purpose: Business model innovation is an important way for small and medium-sized platform enterprises (SMPEs) to gain competitive advantage in the digital economy. Based on social capital theory and dynamic capability theory, this study examines the role of alliance management capabilities (AMC) in platform business model innovation (PBMI) in SMPEs and will explore the moderating effects of technological turbulence (TT) and institutional pressure (IP). Design/methodology/approach: To validate the research objectives, questionnaires were distributed to 500 randomly selected SMPEs, yielding 286 valid responses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) were used to analyze the data. Specifically, fsQCA was employed to identify the configurational paths leading to PBMI. Findings: The results indicates that inter-organizational coordination (IC), alliance portfolio coordination (APC), inter-organizational learning (IL), alliance proactiveness (AP) and alliance transformation (AT) had a positive effect on PBMI. TT and IP negatively moderated the relationship between AMC and PBMI. The fsQCA results, integrating specific dimensions of AMC implementation with TT and IP, revealed four configurational paths driving PBMI: “Adaptive coordination”, “Dynamic coordination”, “Learning coordination” and “Multiple coordination”. Practical implications: This study provides valuable insights to help SMPEs achieve PBMI. To this end, SMPEs should strengthen their AMC, manage the challenges posed by TT and IP and adopt a business model innovation strategy suited to their specific context. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature on AMC, PBMI, TT and IP. Moreover, by combining SEM and fsQCA, this study uncovers the multiple configurational pathways through which SMPEs can enhance PBMI. The results provide guidance for facilitating SMPEs in achieving PBMI and advancing the field of platform business models.