Ben Eaton

About

View research profile and publications

E-mail

be.digi@cbs.dk

Telephone

Mobile: +4531351371

Departments

Department of Digitalization

Room: HOW/60-3.13

View research profile and publications

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.

Outside activities

Associate Professor (20% Position), 2015–current

Visiting Associate Professor

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