The Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS) held a landmark workshop in management on December 3, 2023, focusing on the burgeoning field of digital economy and platform strategy. As part of the school's 20th anniversary celebrations, this event provided a vibrant platform for more than 80 renowned experts and scholars from domestic and international institutions such as the University of Cambridge, the University of Toronto, the University of Florida, Virginia Tech, Singapore Management University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Peking University, Fudan University, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen University and Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen).


The opening remarks were delivered by Professor Wang Pengfei, chair professor of economics and dean of PHBS, who set the tone for the day's discussions. He recalled the faculty’s recent publications in the top-tier journals including Management Science, Marketing Science, Information Systems Research, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, and so on. He pointed out that the workshop would represent a significant moment in the school’s history, celebrating its 20 years of excellence and innovation in business education.


In the evolving landscape of digital platforms, researchers need to adapt and embrace the changes, identifying novel ideas and opportunities in a dynamic and competitive environment. Christoph H. Loch, professor of management at PHBS and former dean of the Cambridge Judge Business School, delivered a keynote speech titled "Platforms as an Opportunity to do High Impact Research." He discussed the evolving landscape of platform research, which evolved from internal architectural platforms (which enabled modularity, mass customization and flexibility) to two-sided market platforms, which connected many previous unconnected suppliers and consumers. There is a thriving research area in platform business models and market design, which involves multiple disciplines (including Strategy, Marketing, Operations, Economics, and Computer Science), and which has had impact in indeed identifying new markets that have increased access to goods and services for new communities. A lot of this research now revolves around optimizing existing (perceived as stable) market structures. While this approach to research is a stable source of publications, it risks falling behind when the empirical phenomenon (platforms) is subject to strongly changing dynamics, which it currently indeed seems to be: the growing influence of emotional buying and the need for platforms to adapt to new competitive elements, including embracing B2B customers and other markets with very different customer and supplier characteristics. Research on such rapid competitive change requires capturing the entrepreneurial opportunities within evolving ecosystems. The keynote was concluded by stressing the importance for researchers to identify and comprehend innovative ideas emerging from companies' experimental activities.


Shi Weilei, professor of strategy at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, associate professor of Journal of Management Study, delivered the keynote speech “Digitalization Strategy -Implication and Future Research Direction”. Professor Shi first discussed the consequences of digital strategies, emphasizing the need to bridge the gap between academic research and real-world effectiveness. Secondly, he elaborated on the antecedents of digital strategies, categorizing variables into CEO-level, company-level, and external environmental factors. Finally, he explored the implementation process of digital strategies, urging researchers to investigate different companies' approaches and the mechanisms driving the strategic process. Professor Shi concluded by highlighting the multidimensional nature of cultural values and the importance of considering environmental boundary conditions.


Wei Wei, professor of management, vice chairman of PHBS Council, and director of Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at PHBS, delivered the keynote speech “How Business ExpertGPT Help Management Research.” He pointed out that while large models excel in accurately understanding various modalities of text, they also face challenges such as illusions, lack of real-time data traceability, inability to handle long texts, and uncontrollable output results. To address these issues, Professor Wei introduced a new system ExpertGPT, which combines deep large models, knowledge graphs, and small models to enhance the system's usability and effectiveness through technical architecture. Professor Wei outlined some application scenarios of the system, including intelligent information retrieval, specialized database generation, smart question answering, and intelligent table generation.


Dou Yifan, professor of Information Management and Business Intelligence at Fudan University, associate editor of Information Systems Research, delivered the keynote speech “Leveraging Network Effects for Connected Products: Strategies and Implications for the Value Chain.” He discussed monetizing the emerging connectivity among physical products in a networked world. He and his co-authors explored two strategies: giving products away for free to expand the network and engineering network effects among products. Analytical models reveal that both strategies complement each other in a value chain setting. The change in the marginal production cost might result in a "connectivity revolution" in product innovation, which is in sharp contrast to traditional value chain research.