Explore our knowledge

Ben Eaton

Associate Professor

Subjects
Strategy Innovation Digitalisation IT Artificial intelligence Geopolitics

Primary research areas

Plat­form Gov­ernance & Gen­er­ativ­ity
Ex­am­ines how plat­form own­ers design rules, stand­ards and bound­ary re­sources to bal­ance con­trol with third-party cre­ativ­ity. Shows how gov­ernance choices shape who can in­nov­ate, the speed of plat­form eco­sys­tem growth, and the types of di­git­al products that emerge.
Di­git­al In­fra­struc­ture Evol­u­tion
Stud­ies how in­fra­struc­tures can evolve plat­form char­ac­ter­ist­ics over time. Ex­plains core–peri­phery form­a­tion, the role of mod­u­lar ar­chi­tec­ture, and how reg­u­la­tion is chan­nelled into in­nov­a­tion rather than stag­na­tion.
API Strategy & In­stalled-Base Growth
In­vest­ig­ates how API gran­u­lar­ity, sta­bil­ity and ver­sion­ing re­duce in­teg­ra­tion fric­tion and en­able com­ple­ments. Demon­strates how in­ter­face design be­comes a com­pet­it­ive lever that com­pounds de­veloper ad­op­tion and com­mit­ment across eco­sys­tems.
Pub­lic-Sec­tor Plat­forms & eID
Ana­lyses how cit­ies and states gov­ern data and iden­tity plat­forms through pub­lic–private col­lab­or­a­tion. Maps mech­an­isms that drive in­clu­sion while en­abling in­nov­a­tion in open data and na­tion­al e-ID.

Ar­chi­tect­ing & gov­ern­ing di­git­al in­nov­a­tion to scale & scope

I research the ‘plumbing’ of digital innovation: how architecture, governance, installed base and digitality combine to scale and scope platforms and infrastructures. Past empirical settings have included Apple’s iOS ecosystem, open government data in Latin American cities, and national e-ID programmes in Scandinavia. 

My work traces platform governance of boundary resources, the evolution of infrastructures toward platform core–periphery structures, and the benefits of modular architectures especially under regulatory pressure. 

A current stream studies API strategy: how granularity, stability and versioning attract complements, lower integration friction and compound adoption. 

Impact matters. Our open-government-data research informed platform designs across Latin America. In eID, we analyse public–private coordination. A recent white paper on API product quality offers practical guidance to build API capabilities that deliver societal and economic value. 

Links

Google Schol­ar
A full list of pub­lic­a­tions can be found on my Google Schol­ar Pro­file
Google Scholar profile

Outside activities

Associate Professor (20% Position), 2015–current

Visiting Associate Professor

At School of Eco­nom­ics, In­nov­a­tion and Tech­no­logy, Høyskolen Kris­ti­ania, Oslo, Nor­way.