Multi-sided platforms (MSPs) are becoming increasingly important in contemporary economies. This special issue of California Management Review aims to stimulate collective discussion among researchers and practitioners on advancing diverse types of MSPs and on better understanding their future development. This article analyzes five contributions to this special issue and explores the growth trajectories of MSPs. There are three types of platforms: born-platform, platform-born adjacent, and incumbent-born. And they rely respectively on three market entry strategies: market creation, market broadening, and market deepening. This article also spotlights the coopetition dynamics of the platforms.

Open innovation has become well established as a new imperative for organizing innovation. In line with the increased use in industry, it has also attracted a lot of attention in academia. However, understanding the full benefits and possible limits of open innovation still remains a challenge. We draw on strategic management theory to describe some of these benefits and limits. More specifically, we develop a dynamic capabilities framework as a way to better understand the strategic management of open innovation, which can then help to better explain both success and failure in open innovation. With this background, as guest editors we introduce select papers published in this Special Section of California Management Review that were originally presented at the fifth annual World Open Innovation Conference, held in San Francisco, California, in December of 2018.

The world in which today's businesses operate has become not only riskier but also more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). Organizations that hew too closely to traditional ways of operating will be hampered in their ability to succeed. In contrast, those that focus on new product and process developments coupled with business model innovation will leverage their dynamic capabilities. An essential overlay is entrepreneurial leadership from top management teams. Strong dynamic capabilities are impossible without it. This article examines how business model innovations, dynamic capabilities, and strategic leadership intertwine to help organizations thrive in VUCA worlds.