Digital platform capability and knowledge integration in large firms: a multi-case study of UK technology companies

Abstract

Large firms invest heavily in digital platforms but struggle to govern information flows, integrate external knowledge, and convert infrastructure into enterprise innovation capability. This study aims to examine how UK technology firms build digital platform capability (DPC) to support knowledge integration and innovation management. A qualitative multiple-case study of five large UK technology firms, drawing on 46 elite interviews (June 2023–April 2024), 20 annual reports (2020–2024), and public digital traces. Abductive analysis using NVivo 12 developed a technology–organization–environment–dynamic capabilities view–institutional pressures (TOE-DCV-IP) framework integrating technological compatibility, organisational orchestration, and institutional pressures. DPC emerges when technological compatibility (application programming interface (API)/legacy alignment) combines with organisational mechanisms (leadership orchestration, absorptive capacity, boundary-spanning roles) to convert institutional pressures into platform governance routines. Firms A and B showed smoother rollout progression and fewer reported integration difficulties under stronger cross-functional governance, whereas Firms C and D experienced greater implementation friction under weaker integration conditions. Orchestration resolves TOE framework's process limitations by linking contexts to dynamic capability processes. The TOE-DCV-IP framework extends enterprise information management literature by explaining DPC as a governance capability rather than an adoption outcome. It clarifies how orchestration integrates external knowledge and legitimises platform-based innovation under regulatory and competitive pressures. The managerial implications follow directly from the TOE-DCV-IP framework. First, managers should conduct compatibility audits and sequence interface integration because technological alignment determines whether external knowledge can move effectively across legacy and platform systems. Second, firms should formalise cross-functional decision rights, leadership prioritisation, and boundary-spanning roles because orchestration is the mechanism through which platform investments are converted into repeatable governance routines. Third, managers should translate regulatory and competitive pressures into API rules, participation protocols, and absorptive knowledge-integration routines rather than treating those pressures as stand-alone compliance demands. Grounded in multi-case evidence, this study advances a process-based explanation of how large firms convert digital platform investments into governance capability for enterprise knowledge integration.