It has taken platforms only twenty years to become digital economy hubs. They have changed markets, enterprises, and society. They have expedited communication, collaboration, and trade for consumers, winning their attention and collecting their data. In doing so, they have made processes, products, and industries obsolete, and disrupted the expectations and behaviours of market players. This raises the question, are digital platforms global innovators or disruptive monopolists? Are they a solution to problems of the past or emissaries of a problematic future?

This book provides a multi-faceted approach to platforms and their profound impact on markets and ecosystems. Economic, managerial, social, and political aspects are analysed, and the differentiation of platforms and their disruptive potential is reviewed. The book also examines the mechanism of achieving a monopolistic position, including in the international supply chain, and the greater influence of platforms on political activity and contemporary democracy. With examples from Poland, USA, and China, the contributions offer an international evaluation of disruptive platforms across a multitude of industries.

The edited collection, prepared by scholars from the SGH Warsaw School of Economics, will be valuable to researchers and academics across the fields of strategic management, marketing, innovations, international business, and the digital economy.

Tymoteusz Doligalski is associate professor in the E-Business Unit at SGH Warsaw School of Economics. His analysis concerns online companies, in particular platforms, from the perspective of business models and customer relationship management. He is the coordinator of a number of programmes, with a focus on E-Business. He was also a supervisor of student teams participating in the Google Online Marketing Challenge (global winners in 2012 and 2014, European winner in 2011). He publishes research notes on his blog: doligalski.net.

Michal Goliński is associate professor in the Institute of Information Systems and Digital Economy at SGH Warsaw School of Economics. His research interests focus on the areas of information society, digital economy, digital destruction and transformation, strategic significance of IT, and the influence of information technology development on contemporary civilisation. He is the author of numerous publications on these issues.

Krzysztof Kozlowski is associate professor and head of the Institute of International Studies and is currently the Vice Rector for Teaching and Students' Affairs at SGH Warsaw School of Economics. He is interested in East, Central, and South-East Asian Politics and socio-political change.