| dc.description.abstract | The platform economy has emerged as a transformative force in contemporary society, reshaping various aspects of daily life to be intermediated digitally. As scholarly interest in the platform economy grows, there is a need for comprehensive research that synthesizes existing theories that speak to its foundations of operation. This paper presents a semi-systematic literature review that explores how scholars have theorized the structures of value creation and capture in the platform economy. The research aim is twofold. Firstly, the study seeks to provide a valuable resource for researchers seeking to orient themselves to the platform economy as a global phenomenon from a conceptually rich perspective. By examining how scholars have conceptualized mechanisms for value capture, the thesis presents significant influences in the literature and highlights key themes and concepts. In the process of collating contributions from within the literature, the second research aim emerges; to apply systematic literature review methods to qualitative and non-empirical theoretical works. This thesis therefore contributes a conceptual road map to the value engine of the platform economy, while simultaneously exploring qualitative literature review methods for theory development. This study is anchored in a critical realist philosophy, which underpins the research question, “how have scholars theorized the structures of value capture and creation in the platform economy?” Critical realism provides practicable insights on evaluating theory, complemented by the regulation approach which is a research tradition for historically-specific analysis of capitalism. Research methods include a systematic search of the literature to ensure a comprehensive coverage of relevant scholarly contributions, screening for inclusion based on relevance, validity, and use of theory, and qualitative research techniques, such as coding, to analyze the literature. Following these steps, the contributions of twenty-four articles are synthesized to uncover the themes at the core of the platform economy’s operation, specific concepts, and common influences. This research finds that the core components of the platform economy are data, labor, and its structure. These three elements interact to provide platforms powers of intermediation, control, enrollment, and expansion. As well, the findings point to the ways that platforms work socially, culturally, and politically to stabilize their position of power. Overall, this literature review contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the platform economy by synthesizing existing theories of value creation and capture. By providing an overview of concepts and common influences, this research offers a foundation for future scholars seeking to understand and explore the platform economy from diverse theoretical perspectives. Moreover, the systematic search, critical evaluation, and qualitative coding techniques employed in this study enhance the rigor and comprehensiveness of the analysis, and provide insights on the use of literature review methods for theory building. | eng |