Platform & Web3 Ecosystems
Business Model Innovation
Digital Trust & Multi-party Data-Sharing

KILIAN
DAVID
SCHMÜCK

RESEARCHER | ENTREPRENEUR | ADVISOR | SPEAKER

Dr. Kilian David Schmück

I am a researcher and consultant for technology and innovation management, focusing on blockchain affordances and platform ecosystems, along with their business model characteristics. My motivation for decentralized platform ecosystems and digital business models, in particular, stems from my time in the group digitalization at the Volkswagen Group. There, I addressed the question of how asset-driven companies such as automotive manufacturers can maintain their competitive advantage in the digital age, especially when dealing with platform-based business models. In this context, the competitor is no longer just Daimler, BMW, or Toyota. Instead, the competitors and (additionally) partners are Uber, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. In such integrated business and platform ecosystems, coopetition (cooperate & compete) constellations are formed, with a demand for data sovereignty and democratic platform governance to balance the ecosystem.

To ground these ideas and to advance the understanding of such company interrelationships with business model implications and platform design choices, I conducted my Ph.D. in Economics at the University of St.Gallen with a research stint at the Boston University Questrom School of Business. Together with Prof. Oliver Gassmann and Prof. Marshall van Alstyne, we researched DLT affordances and decentralized platform ecosystems. In coopetition constellations, decentralized platform ecosystems are an intriguing approach to provide a data-democratizing basis, in which advantages such as transparency and transaction cost reduction of classical platforms can be achieved without their drawbacks of lock-in effects and monopolistic market structures. New B2B multi-party data sharing constellations can establish, which promote organic and market-oriented cooperation and regulate the data gravities according to sovereign game rules. Thus, macroeconomic efficiency is achieved, enabling both cooperative and competitive relationships on fair terms and conditions—establishing the third evolution stage of platform economics.

Taking Volkswagen as an example, an automotive company that primarily designs, manufactures, and distributes automobiles can thus cooperatively offer mobility services on shared marketplaces that provide liquidity to end customers. Moreover, the resources and risks for creating and operating the marketplace are shared through the shared platform ecosystem without becoming dependent on central platform sponsors or exposing the company’s business model to excessive risks.

Topics

CV

Research & Academia

I did my Ph.D. between 2017 and 2021 at the University of St.Gallen under Prof. Oliver Gassmann and Prof. Elgar Fleisch. The topic of my dissertation was DLT/Blockchain affordances and decentralized platform ecosystems. In 2021, I worked as Visiting Scholar with Prof. Marshall van Alstyne at the Boston University Questrom School of Business to research specifically platform externalities and platform governance. The auxiliary topics of my dissertation focused on Web3 ecosystems, DLT-based business models, game-theoretical coopetition models, platform consortia, and business model innovation. As a project manager and research associate at the Institute of Technology Management (ITEM-HSG), I led and initiated a 3-year Siemens research cooperation on decentralized platforms, the DLT Think Tank, and the St.Gallen Blockchain Roundtable. I received my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from RWTH Aachen University in Mechanical Engineering.

Consulting & Advisory

As an innovation and technology consultant, I managed and supported several projects and programs related to innovation and technology management. As program manager for the BMI Think Tanks of the BMI Lab, I was responsible for an executive group. Among other things, I led an innovation study trip to Israel in order to connect German, French, and Swiss executives with the Israeli startup ecosystem. From the ITEM-HSG side, I led the Hansgrohe Campus executive program and a working group on distributed ledger technologies. At the BGW Advisory Group and BMI Lab, I have facilitated several projects on business model innovation and innovation culture with several DAX companies as well as SMEs.

Industry Background & Practical Experience

My industrial and professional background is rooted in the automotive industry. Especially during my mechanical engineering studies in Aachen, I had several stations at the Volkswagen Group (Group Digitalization, Volkswagen Slovakia, AUDI), where I worked on digital business models and production management. At FEV and FEV North America, I worked for several years in the exhaust after-treatment of diesel vehicles (Aachen and Detroit). Since 2018, I have worked with and at Siemens on decentralized information system architectures.