Business model innovation in multi-sided platforms supported by the increase of trust in b2b relationships: a case study on baby sisters

• Autor(a) principal: Cordeiro, Laura Maria Simão
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/21653
• topic: Business model innovation; Multi-sided platforms; Services; Trust; Inovação no modelo de negócios; Plataformas multilaterais; Serviços; Confiança

The virtual era offers new business opportunities, encouraging the creation of multi-sided platforms where resources can be more efficiently used and interactions between “strangers” can be stimulated, contributing to the development of synergies that enrich all actors. Moreover, these interactions are online based which enforces the platform to implement strategies to increase trustworthiness among participants. The research explores, in a case study approach through qualitative interviews, the trust concept in business to business (B2B) markets and how it can influence the process of innovation. The analysis is centred on a childcare platform that was able to build a system trust, founded on solid relationships and new mechanisms, in a sector that was mainly based on interpersonal trust. Nonetheless, the constant contact between the company and its partners creates an environment where both actors can share ideas, enabling the business to improve and explore potential innovation opportunities. The findings of the research, by some means limited to the scope of the study, contribute to the literature by addressing different concepts of trust in order to understand how trust in childcare services can be strengthened in an online B2B context, with effects at the company and sector levels.