An Analytical Study of the Global Digital Platform (GDPs) to Differentiate Traditional Business Models (TBMs) And Trans-Nationalization Models

Vibhu Goel

Vol. 18, Issue 1, Jul-Dec 2024

Abstract:

Global digital platforms have reconfigured how firms create, deliver, and capture value across borders, challenging assumptions embedded in traditional business models (TBMs) and internationalization paths. This paper differentiates TBMs from platform-based models along nine design dimensions—value logic, asset intensity, governance, complementarities, demand aggregation, data dependence, scalability, monetization, and institutional exposure—and synthesizes trans-nationalization models observable on global digital platforms (GDPs): marketplace piggybacking, app-store internationalization, aggregator expansion, peer-to-peer scaling, hybrid “platform-plus-pipe,” and global-local orchestration. Building on research in strategy, innovation, and international business, we outline how network effects, modular architectures, and platform governance substitute for or reshape traditional country-by-country commitments, altering liabilities of foreignness, speed-to-scale, and regulatory risk. We contribute a comparative framework that connects platform economics to IB theories (OLI/internalization) and propose a research agenda on compliance-by-code, algorithmic localization, and ecosystem diplomacy. Managerially, we translate implications into a staged playbook and policy checklist.

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