{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T10:04:51Z","timestamp":1777543491259,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":69,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,9]],"date-time":"2019-12-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1575849600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Computers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The platform economy denotes a subset of economic activities enabled by platforms such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Uber. Due to their tremendous success, more and more offerings concentrate around platforms increasing platforms\u2019 positional-power, hence leading towards a de-facto centralization of previously decentralized online markets. Furthermore, platform models work well for individual products and services or predefined combinations of these. However, they fall short in supporting complex products (personalized combinations of individual products and services), the combination of which is required to fulfill a particular consumer need, consequently increasing transaction costs for consumers looking for such products. To address these issues, we envision a \u201cpost-platform economy\u201d\u2014an economy facilitated by decentralized and self-organized online structures named Distributed Market Spaces. This work proposes a comprehensive model to serve as a guiding framework for the analysis, design, and implementation of Distributed Market Spaces. The proposed model leverages the St. Gallen Media Reference Model by adjusting existing and adding new entities and elements. The resulting multidimensional and multi-view model defines how a reference Distributed Market Space (a) works on the strategic and operational levels, (b) enables market exchange for complex products, and (c) how its instances might unfold during different life stages. In a case study, we demonstrated the application of our model and evaluated its suitability of meeting the primary objectives it was designed for.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/computers8040090","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,9]],"date-time":"2019-12-09T05:54:51Z","timestamp":1575870891000},"page":"90","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Beyond Platform Economy: A Comprehensive Model for Decentralized and Self-Organizing Markets on Internet-Scale"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"8","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5259-9746","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mirjana","family":"Radonjic-Simic","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University, 68163 Mannheim, Germany"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4877-1088","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dennis","family":"Pfisterer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Telematics, University of L\u00fcbeck, 23562 L\u00fcbeck, Germany"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Haydn, S. (2015). Shift: A Leader\u2019s Guide to the Platform Economy, Tru Publishing."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Cusumano, M.A., Yoffie, D.B., and Gawer, A. (2019). The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital Competition, Innovation, and Power, HarperCollins Publishers."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Parker, G.G., Van Alstyne, M.W., and Choudary, S.P. (2016). Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economyand How to Make Them Work for You, WW Norton & Company."},{"key":"ref_4","first-page":"61","article-title":"The rise of the platform economy","volume":"32","author":"Kenney","year":"2016","journal-title":"Issues Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Moazed, A., and Johnson, N.L. (2016). Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy, St. Martin\u2019s Press."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Reillier, L.C., and Reillier, B. (2017). Platform Strategy: How to Unlock the Power of Communities and Networks to Grow Your Business, Routledge.","DOI":"10.4324\/9781315598949"},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"(2019, December 08). Open Bazaar. Available online: https:\/\/openbazaar.org\/."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mirjana Radonjic-Simic, D.P. (2019). A Decentralized Business Ecosystem for Complex Products. Digital Business: Business Algorithms, Cloud Computing and Data Engineering, Springer International Publishing.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-93940-7_2"},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Mirjana Radonjic-Simic, D.P. (2019). Reference Model and Architecture for the Post-Platform Economy. Economics of Digital Transformation, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics and Business."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Schmid, B. (2019, December 08). The Concept of Media. Available online: https:\/\/www.alexandria.unisg.ch\/9574\/1\/The%20Concept%20of%20Media.pdf."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Schmid, B.F., and Lindemann, M.A. (1998, January 9). Elements of a reference model for electronic markets. Proceedings of the Thirty-First Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Kohala Coast, HI, USA."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Evans, D.S., and Schmalensee, R. (2016). Matchmakers: The New Economics of Multisided Platforms, Harvard Business Review Press.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.2793021"},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Tiwana, A. (2013). Platform Ecosystems: Aligning Architecture, Governance, and Strategy, Morgan Kaufmann."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"386","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1468-0335.1937.tb00002.x","article-title":"The nature of the firm","volume":"4","author":"Coase","year":"1937","journal-title":"Economica"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fettke, P., and Loos, P. (2007). Perspectives on reference modeling. Reference Modeling for Business Systems Analysis, IGI Global.","DOI":"10.4018\/978-1-59904-054-7"},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"Frank, U. (1999, January 13\u201315). Conceptual modelling as the core of the information systems discipline-perspectives and epistemological challenges. Proceedings of the AMCIS 1999, Milwaukee, WI, USA."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rosemann, M. (2003). Application reference models and building blocks for management and control. Handbook on Enterprise Architecture, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-24744-9_17"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Braun, R., and Esswein, W. (2007). Classification of reference models. Advances in Data Analysis, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-70981-7_45"},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Walter, M., Lohse, M., and Guzman, S. (2019, December 08). Platform Innovation Kit 3.0. Available online: http:\/\/www.platforminnovationkit.com\/."},{"key":"ref_20","first-page":"2015","article-title":"The Internet needs a new economy","volume":"8","author":"Schneider","year":"2015","journal-title":"Explore"},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Scholz, T. (2016). Platform cooperativism. Challenging the Corporate Sharing Economy, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation."},{"key":"ref_22","unstructured":"Stokes, K., Clarence, E., Anderson, L., and Rinne, A. (2014). Making Sense of the UK Collaborative Economy, Nesta."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Bauwens, M. (2019, December 08). Open Cooperativism for the P2P Age. Available online: https:\/\/blog.p2pfoundation.net\/open-cooperativism-for-the-p2p-age\/2014\/06\/16."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Becker, J., and Schutte, R. (2007). A Reference Model for Retail Enterprise. Reference Modeling for Business Systems Analysis, IGI Global.","DOI":"10.4018\/978-1-59904-054-7.ch009"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"373","DOI":"10.1007\/BF03250950","article-title":"E-MEMO: Referenzmodelle zur \u00f6konomischen realisierung leistungsf\u00e4higer Infrastrukturen f\u00fcr electronic commerce","volume":"46","author":"Frank","year":"2004","journal-title":"Wirtschaftsinformatik"},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Kollmann, T. (2013). E-Business: Grundlagen Elektronischer Gesch\u00e4ftsprozesse in der Net Economy. 3, Gabler."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"26","DOI":"10.4067\/S0718-18762016000100003","article-title":"A service-oriented e-commerce reference architecture","volume":"11","author":"Aulkemeier","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Menasce, D.A. (September, January 29). Scaling for e-business. Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems, San Francisco, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"529","DOI":"10.1007\/s10845-007-0063-3","article-title":"A comprehensive modeling framework for collaborative networked organizations","volume":"18","author":"Afsarmanesh","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. Intell. Manuf."},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"Stanoevska-Slabeva, K. (,  2003). Towards a reference model for m-commerce applications. Proceedings of the ECIS 2002, Gdansk, Poland."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Schmid, B., and Schroth, C. (2008, January 4\u20136). Organizing as programming: A reference model for cross-organizational collaboration. Proceedings of the 9th International Business Information Management Association Conference IBIMA, Marrakech, Morocco."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Janner, T., Schroth, C., and Schmid, B. (,  2008). Modelling service systems for collaborative innovation in the enterprise software industry-the st. gallen media reference model applied. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Services Computing (SCC\u201908), Honolulu, HI, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/SCC.2008.34"},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"Hoyer, V., and Stanoevska-Slabeva, K. (2009, January 8\u201310). Towards a reference model for grassroots enterprise mashup environments. Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2009, Verona, Italy."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Giovanoli, C., Pulikal, P., and Grivas, S.G. (2014, January 25\u201329). E-marketplace for cloud services. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Cloud Computing, GRIDs, and Virtualization\u2014CLOUD COMPUTING 2014, Venice, Italy."},{"key":"ref_35","first-page":"75","article-title":"Predators and Prey: A New Ecology of Competition","volume":"71","author":"Moore","year":"1993","journal-title":"Harv. Bus. Rev."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Augier, M., and Teece, J.D. (2016). Business Ecosystem. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management, Palgrave Macmillan.","DOI":"10.1057\/978-1-349-94848-2"},{"key":"ref_37","unstructured":"Iansiti, M., and Levien, R. (2004). The Keystone Advantage: What the New Dynamics of Business Ecosystems Mean for Strategy, Innovation, and Sustainability, Harvard Business Press."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101","DOI":"10.1147\/sj.471.0101","article-title":"BEAM: A framework for business ecosystem analysis and modeling","volume":"47","author":"Tian","year":"2008","journal-title":"IBM Syst. J."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"41","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijpe.2014.09.003","article-title":"Understanding business ecosystem using a 6C framework in Internet-of-Things-based sectors","volume":"159","author":"Rong","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Prod. Econ."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"El Sawy, O.A., and Pereira, F. (2013). Business Modelling in the Dynamic Digital Space: An Ecosystem Approach, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-31765-1"},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1194","DOI":"10.1016\/j.techfore.2012.11.002","article-title":"Methodology of business ecosystems network analysis: A case study in Telecom Italia Future Centre","volume":"80","author":"Battistella","year":"2013","journal-title":"Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5","DOI":"10.22215\/timreview\/807","article-title":"Designing business models for the internet of things","volume":"4","author":"Westerlund","year":"2014","journal-title":"Technol. Innov. Manag. Rev."},{"key":"ref_43","first-page":"39","article-title":"Ecosystem as structure: An actionable construct for strategy","volume":"43","author":"Adner","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Manag."},{"key":"ref_44","unstructured":"OMG (2019, December 08). Business Process Model and Notation Version 2.0. Available online: http:\/\/www.omg.org\/spec\/BPMN\/2.0\/."},{"key":"ref_45","unstructured":"Picot, A., Reichwald, R., and Wigand, R.T. (2003). Die Grenzenlose Unternehmung: Information, Organisation und Management, Springer."},{"key":"ref_46","unstructured":"Selz, D., and Schubert, P. (1998, January 9). Web assessment\u2014A model for the evaluation and the assessment of successful electronic commerce applications. Proceedings of the Thirty-First Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Kohala Coast, HI, USA."},{"key":"ref_47","unstructured":"Foundation, E. (2019, December 08). Ethereum Blockchain App Platform. Available online: https:\/\/ethereum.org\/."},{"key":"ref_48","unstructured":"Fabric, H. (2019, December 08). Hyperledger Fabric. Available online: https:\/\/www.hyperledger.org\/projects\/fabric."},{"key":"ref_49","unstructured":"Szabo, N. (2019, December 08). Formalizing and securing relationships on public networks. Available online: https:\/\/firstmonday.org\/ojs\/index.php\/fm\/article\/view\/548\/469."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Luu, L., Chu, D.H., Olickel, H., Saxena, P., and Hobor, A. (2016, January 24\u201328). Making smart contracts smarter. Proceedings of the 2016 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, Vienna, Austria.","DOI":"10.1145\/2976749.2978309"},{"key":"ref_51","unstructured":"Antonopoulos, A.M., and Wood, G. (2018). Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and Dapps, O\u2019Reilly Media."},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"631","DOI":"10.2307\/3053505","article-title":"The Emergence and Transformation of Disputes: Naming, Blaming, Claiming","volume":"15","author":"Felstiner","year":"1980","journal-title":"Law Soc. Rev."},{"key":"ref_53","unstructured":"Katsh, E.E., Katsh, M.E., and Rifkin, J. (2001). Online Dispute Resolution: Resolving Conflicts in Cyberspace, John Wiley & Sons, Inc."},{"key":"ref_54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"149","DOI":"10.1145\/964723.383071","article-title":"Chord: A scalable peer-to-peer lookup service for internet applications","volume":"31","author":"Stoica","year":"2001","journal-title":"ACM SIGCOMM Comput. Commun. Rev."},{"key":"ref_55","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ostrom, E. (2015). Governing the Commons, Cambridge University Press.","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9781316423936"},{"key":"ref_56","unstructured":"Benkler, Y. (2006). The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, Yale University Press."},{"key":"ref_57","unstructured":"McCleary, T. (2019, December 08). Got Influence? What\u2019s Social Currency Got to Do with It?. Available online: https:\/\/fowmedia.com\/influence-social-currency\/."},{"key":"ref_58","first-page":"6","article-title":"RDF primer","volume":"10","author":"Manola","year":"2004","journal-title":"W3C Recomm."},{"key":"ref_59","first-page":"68","article-title":"Strategy as ecology","volume":"82","author":"Iansiti","year":"2004","journal-title":"Harv. Bus. Rev."},{"key":"ref_60","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1270","DOI":"10.1002\/smj.935","article-title":"Platform envelopment","volume":"32","author":"Eisenmann","year":"2011","journal-title":"Strateg. Manag. J."},{"key":"ref_61","unstructured":"den Hartigh, E., Tol, M., and Visscher, W. (2006, January 20\u201321). The health measurement of a business ecosystem. Proceedings of the European Network on Chaos and Complexity Research and Management Practice Meeting, Bergen aan Zee, The Netherlands."},{"key":"ref_62","unstructured":"Caragliu, A., Del Bo, C., and Nijkamp, P. (2009, January 7\u20139). Smart Cities in Europe. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Regional Science (CERS), Kosice, Slovakia."},{"key":"ref_63","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"119","DOI":"10.1007\/s13132-012-0083-x","article-title":"Special Issue on Smart Cities and the Future Internet in Europe","volume":"4","author":"Komninos","year":"2013","journal-title":"J. Knowl. Econ."},{"key":"ref_64","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Anthopolous, L., and Fitsilis, P. (2014, January 16\u201319). Exploring Architectural and Organizational Features in Smart Cities. Proceedings of the 16th Internatinal Conference on Advanced Communication Technology, Pyeongchang, Korea.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICACT.2014.6778947"},{"key":"ref_65","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"22","DOI":"10.1287\/mksc.19.1.22.15184","article-title":"Measuring the customer experience in online environments: A structural modeling approach","volume":"19","author":"Novak","year":"2000","journal-title":"Mark. Sci."},{"key":"ref_66","first-page":"116","article-title":"Understanding customer experience","volume":"85","author":"Meyer","year":"2007","journal-title":"Harv. Bus. Rev."},{"key":"ref_67","unstructured":"Commission, E. (2019, December 08). The European Single Market. Available online: https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/growth\/single-market_en."},{"key":"ref_68","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lee, S., Sherwood, R., and Bhattacharjee, B. (April, January 30). Cooperative peer groups in NICE. Proceedings of the IEEE INFOCOM 2003. Twenty-Second Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies (IEEE Cat. No. 03CH37428), San Francisco, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/INFCOM.2003.1208963"},{"key":"ref_69","unstructured":"Berners-Lee, T. (2019, December 08). The Solid Project. Available online: https:\/\/solid.mit.edu\/."}],"container-title":["Computers"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-431X\/8\/4\/90\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T13:40:35Z","timestamp":1760190035000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2073-431X\/8\/4\/90"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,9]]},"references-count":69,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,12]]}},"alternative-id":["computers8040090"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/computers8040090","relation":{},"ISSN":["2073-431X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2073-431X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,9]]}}}