Exploring Leadership Evolution in Platform-Based Organizations: Toward a New Management Paradigm
Keywords:
Platform-based organizations, digital leadership, platform leadership, ecosystem orchestration, algorithmic management, qualitative study, management paradigm.Abstract
This study aimed to explore how leadership evolves in platform-based organizations and to develop a qualitative understanding of the emerging management paradigm required for digital platform environments. This qualitative study was conducted using an interpretive research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 21 senior managers, digital transformation specialists, product leaders, platform strategists, and human resource managers working in platform-based organizations in Tehran. Participants were selected through purposive sampling based on their direct experience with platform strategy, digital ecosystem governance, algorithmic coordination, and leadership transformation. Interviews continued until theoretical saturation was achieved, meaning that no substantially new concepts emerged from the final interviews. Each interview lasted between 45 and 75 minutes and was transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis supported by NVivo software. Coding moved from open coding to axial categorization and final theme development. To enhance trustworthiness, member checking, peer review, coding comparison, and an audit trail were used. The analysis generated four main categories: leadership as ecosystem orchestration, algorithmically mediated coordination, stakeholder trust and platform governance, and adaptive distributed leadership capability. The findings showed that leadership in platform-based organizations is moving away from hierarchical command and toward the orchestration of multi-sided actors, data-driven decision-making, modular coordination, and continuous strategic adaptation. Participants emphasized that platform leaders must manage not only employees but also users, complementors, developers, partners, regulators, and algorithmic systems. The study suggests that platform-based organizations require a new management paradigm in which leadership is relational, technological, ecosystemic, and adaptive. Effective platform leadership depends on the ability to balance scalability with trust, automation with human judgment, openness with control, and strategic direction with distributed participation
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