The concept of platform evolved a lot during the years and entered in different sectors. Companies in many fields are considering more and more platform approaches in order to reduce complexity, manage the risk and better leverage investments. However, one may ask if this strategy has also an impact on a particular industry like the creative one. To answer this question, it has been examined a sector, which has registered an incredible growth in the last years: the movie industry. Starting from the evidence that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is having a strong impact on this sector and its films are characterized by a high number of connections, this thesis is based on the study of the MCU case, benchmarked with two other movie franchises based on superheroes (DC and X-Men). Firstly, this work wants to demonstrate the presence of the platform logic behind the huge success of the MCU. Secondly, it wants to contribute to the literature of platforms and to one of the creative industry, showing that the two worlds can be combined and providing a first case study for the identification of the main characteristics of a “creative platform”. The research has been conducted in two phases. First, it has been made a preliminary analysis on the historical data of the three franchises’ performances to understand better the differences between them and identify the main determinants of a film company success. Then, it has been performed a social network analysis made with the software Gephi with the main goal of exploring how nodes in this kind of network interact, which is their position and if exists a meaning behind their relationships. The data used to build the network have been collected in a qualitative form from a community website and successively transformed into quantitative data. The results identify three different strategies adopted by the three franchises and show that with a platform logic the position of a node (in this case movies) in the network affects its success. Furthermore, these examples demonstrate that the choice to adopt a platform strategy positively affects the results also in a sector such as the creative one. This thesis aim at representing a point of start to enlarge the boundaries of platforms’ application also in unexplored industries and a point of reference for managers when developing a new project, especially in the movie industry or more in general in a creative sector.
L'idea di piattaforma si è trasformata molto nel corso degli anni ed è entrata a far parte di diversi settori. Aziende in più ambiti stanno prendendo in considerazione sempre più approcci di piattaforma al fine di ridurre la complessità, gestire il rischio e sfruttare meglio gli investimenti. Tuttavia, ci si può chiedere se questa strategia abbia un impatto anche su un settore particolare come quello creativo. Per rispondere a questa domanda è stato esaminato un campo che ha registrato una crescita incredibile negli ultimi anni: l'industria cinematografica. Partendo dall'evidenza che il Marvel Cinematic Universe(MCU) sta avendo un forte impatto su questo settore e i suoi film sono caratterizzati da un elevato numero di connessioni, questa tesi si basa sullo studio del caso MCU,confrontato con altri due franchise (DC e X-Men). In primo luogo, il lavoro vuole dimostrare la presenza della “logica piattaforma” dietro l'enorme successo del MCU. In secondo luogo, vuole contribuire alla letteratura delle piattaforme e dell'industria creativa, dimostrando che i due mondi possono essere collegati e fornendo un primo caso di studio per l'identificazione delle principali caratteristiche di una "piattaforma creativa". La ricerca è stata condotta in due fasi. Innanzitutto, è stata eseguita un’analisi preliminare sui dati storici delle prestazioni dei tre franchise per capire meglio le loro differenze e identificare i principali fattori determinanti il successo di un’azienda cinematografica. Successivamente, è stata eseguita un'analisi delle reti sociali, realizzata con il software Gephi, con l'obiettivo principale di esplorare come interagiscono i nodi in questo tipo di reti, qual è la loro posizione e se esiste un significato dietro le rispettive relazioni. I dati utilizzati per costruire la rete sono stati raccolti in forma qualitativa da un sito Web, creato dalla comunità, e in seguito trasformati in dati quantitativi. I risultati identificano tre strategie diverse adottate dai tre franchise e mostrano che in una logica di piattaforma la posizione di un nodo (in questo caso film) nella rete, ne influenza il successo. Inoltre, questi esempi dimostrano che la scelta di adottare una strategia di piattaforma influisce positivamente sui risultati anche in un settore come quello creativo. Questa tesi ha l’intento di rappresentare un punto di partenza per allargare i confini dell'applicazione delle piattaforme anche in settori inesplorati e, un punto di riferimento per i manager quando sviluppano un nuovo progetto, specialmente nell'industria cinematografica o più in generale in un settore creativo.
The emergence of a creative platform : a network analysis on three movie franchises
GILLO, GIANMARCO
2019/2020
Abstract
The concept of platform evolved a lot during the years and entered in different sectors. Companies in many fields are considering more and more platform approaches in order to reduce complexity, manage the risk and better leverage investments. However, one may ask if this strategy has also an impact on a particular industry like the creative one. To answer this question, it has been examined a sector, which has registered an incredible growth in the last years: the movie industry. Starting from the evidence that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is having a strong impact on this sector and its films are characterized by a high number of connections, this thesis is based on the study of the MCU case, benchmarked with two other movie franchises based on superheroes (DC and X-Men). Firstly, this work wants to demonstrate the presence of the platform logic behind the huge success of the MCU. Secondly, it wants to contribute to the literature of platforms and to one of the creative industry, showing that the two worlds can be combined and providing a first case study for the identification of the main characteristics of a “creative platform”. The research has been conducted in two phases. First, it has been made a preliminary analysis on the historical data of the three franchises’ performances to understand better the differences between them and identify the main determinants of a film company success. Then, it has been performed a social network analysis made with the software Gephi with the main goal of exploring how nodes in this kind of network interact, which is their position and if exists a meaning behind their relationships. The data used to build the network have been collected in a qualitative form from a community website and successively transformed into quantitative data. The results identify three different strategies adopted by the three franchises and show that with a platform logic the position of a node (in this case movies) in the network affects its success. Furthermore, these examples demonstrate that the choice to adopt a platform strategy positively affects the results also in a sector such as the creative one. This thesis aim at representing a point of start to enlarge the boundaries of platforms’ application also in unexplored industries and a point of reference for managers when developing a new project, especially in the movie industry or more in general in a creative sector.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/153537