Research on APIs in the Platform Economy, Marko Seppänen, Professor at Tampere University

1. Research on APIs in
the Platform Economy
Prof. Marko Seppänen
Tampere University
marko.seppanen@tuni.fi
+358 40 588 4080
Twitter@DrSeppanen
June 4th, 2019@APIDays

2. The book is done – why to bother?

3. Justification for the research
• ”Half of the research is waste – you just cannot know in
advance which half!”
• Research is the way to produce solid, tested, self-correcting,
cumulating body of knowledge
• There are lot of knowns with APIs, but the world is changing and
new challenges are emerging constantly

4. Example of platformed
ecosystem: FinTech
Basole and Patel (2018) Visualizing the Global FinTech Ecosystem Service Science, vol. 10, n.4 p.12 4

5. So, what is happening in the API research?

6. Web Of Science Core Collection; as of June 3, 2019
2019
+20% per year trendline

9. Faster adoption
Slower adoption

10. Web Of Science Core Collection; as of June 3, 2019

11. Authors based on co-citation
All years; all categories

12. Authors based on co-citation
All years; all categories

13. Key authors based on co-citation
Limited to Computer
Science (all sub-
categories); business;
social sciences

14. Key authors based on bibliographic coupling
Limited to Computer
Science (all sub-categories);
business; social sciences; ;
years 2010-2019 N=816

15. Some selected, recent topics
• A systematic approach to API usability: Taxonomy-derived criteria and a case
study; Mosqueira-Rey et al. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2017.12.010
• “The literature on API usability is very technically-minded and tends to neglect the subjective
component of usability. We contribute to a more global and comprehensive view of the usability
of APIs that is not contradictory but complementary with metrics.”
• A systematic mapping study of API usability evaluation methods; Rauf et al. (2019)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosrev.2019.05.001
• “how quickly or easily different types of users are able to learn and use the API.. developing APIs
with good usability requires interdisciplinary knowledge that combines cognitive psychology with
software engineering in an efficient manner that meets industrial objectives of faster-to-market”
• Data sharing and interoperability: Fostering innovation and competition through
APIs; Borgogno & Colangelo (2019) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2019.03.008
• “Data sharing via APIs requires a complex implementation process and sound standardization
initiatives are essential for its success. Moreover, data pooling agreements need to be targeted in
advance by competition law so to incentivize their adoption and leverage their pro-competitive
potential.”

16. Some selected, recent topics
• API security: whose job is it anyway? Macy (2018) https://doi.org/10.1016/S1353-
4858(18)30088-6
• “For future-proof architectures that are secured against modern threats, enterprises need to combine
identity access control with data security. This can be done by trying to code it over and over again, but
that is not a cost-effective or secure approach. Rather, adopting modern API security technology fills the
gaps that the API and IAM revolution have created.”
• API recommendation for event-driven Android application development; Yuan et al. (2019)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2018.10.010
• “New empirical evidence for the need of recommending event callbacks for developers.
• Domain-specific API databases correlating various functionality descriptions and APIs.
• Android API search engine for recommending both functional APIs and event callbacks.”
• Optimizing and Satisficing: The Interplay Between Platform Architecture and Producers’
Design Strategies for Platform Performance; Brunswicker et al. (2019; forthcoming in MISQ)
• “a platform’s architecture needs to be decoupled so that producers can easily mix and match the platform’s
design elements (APIs, code libraries, process models, etc.) into apps that perform well competitively, and
insulate the platform from skewed outcomes and low market performance.”

17. Our new project about to start:
“From Saas to Platform APIs”
• Funded by Business Finland
• Research partners: University of Helsinki and University of Tampere; Bunch of
company partners
• Three guiding principles: 1) Complex systems understanding; 2) API-based
system element connectivity; 3) Digital ecosystem creation and management of
value co-creation
• Public description of objectives
1) define techniques and competences for creating APIs for systems that consists of
numerous subsystems, where newly introduced IoT capabilities enable connectivity;
2) pilot the techniques in the context of participating companies and their existing systems;
3) experiment innovation ecosystem creation using the defined APIs and potential business
models in the context of participating companies (possibly including customers).
Please indicate if you are interested!

18. Thank you for your attention: Q&A