The digital freight forwarder and the incumbent: A framework to examine disruptive potentials of digital platforms

Abstract

The emergence of digital platform start-ups poses a threat to disrupt the logistics industry with new business models. Digital freight forwarders offer platforms that challenge the service offerings of the traditional incumbent logistics providers, yet it is not clear whether these digital platforms have the potential to truly ‘disrupt’ the current industry. In this paper, we debate a more comprehensive view on the notion of disruption and disruptive innovation in the context of logistics start-ups leveraging digital platforms. We propose a Digital Start-up Disruption (DSD) framework – grounded on the existing literature – that allows characterizing digital platforms and their disruptive potential using four antecedents: initial target market, ecosystem framing, value creation, and regulatory agenda. Applying the framework of the four antecedents to a case study of a digital freight forwarder reveals important insights pertaining to the dynamics of disruptive and sustaining technologies. These findings can help investors and funding organizations to identify opportunities for potential disruptive innovations.

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