最佳獨特性考察了企業在與範例或原型產品的從眾和差異化之間面臨的緊張關係。然而，研究人員做出了幾個假設：焦點企業的行為是原子的，企業所處的更廣泛環境是穩定的，從眾和差異化是同時存在的張力。將最佳獨特性應用於平台環境會放寬這些假設。使用十年的谷歌安卓開源軟件綜合數據集，我們發現智能手機製造商之間的產品獨特性各不相同，這取決於他們與谷歌的互動，以及谷歌在每個新版本的安卓系統發佈時的技術變化。本篇論文發現，每次谷歌發布新的安卓版本時，一些公司都會進行“適應性從眾”，通過與谷歌共同創造新產品的合法性，從而增加產品的獨特性。因此，從眾和差異是互補的，而不是相矛盾的。也就是說，差異化壓力允許企業擴大可接受的合法性範圍，而從眾壓力則促使企業獲取合法性資源以獲得獨特性。

Optimal distinctiveness examines tensions firms face between conformity and differentiation with exemplar or prototype products. However, researchers make several assumptions: that focal firms act atomistically, the broader environment of firms is stable, and conformity and differentiation are simultaneous tensions. Applying optimal distinctiveness to platform environments loosens these assumptions. Using a decade-long comprehensive dataset of Google Android open-source software, we find that product distinctiveness among smartphone manufacturers varies, based on their interactions with Google, and Google’s generational technological changes when each new version of Android is released. The paper finds some firms engage in ‘adaptive conformity’ each time Google releases a new Android version, by co-creating legitimacy in new products with Google, which increases product distinctiveness. Thus, conformity and differentiation are complementary, rather than in tension. That is, differentiation pressures allow firms to expand the range of acceptable legitimacy, while conformity pressures induce firms to acquire legitimized resources for distinctiveness.

Adner R (2017) Ecosystem as structure: An actionable construct for strategy. Journal of Management 43(1): 39-58.
Adner R and Feiler D (2019) Interdependence, perception, and investment choices- An experimental approach to decision making in innovation ecosystems. Organization Science 30(1): 109-125.
Adner R and Kapoor R (2010) Value creation in innovation ecosystems: How the structure of technological interdependence affects firm performance in new technology generations. Strategic Management Journal 31(3): 306-333.
Alcacer J and Oxley J (2014) Learning by supplying. Strategic Management Journal 35(2): 204-223.
Ansari S and Garud R (2009) Inter-generational transitions in sociotechnical systems: The case of mobile communications. Research Policy 38(2): 382–392.
Ansari S, Garud R and Kumaraswamy A (2016) The disruptor’s dilemma: TiVo and the U.S. television ecosystem. Strategic Management Journal 37(9): 1829–1853.
Bagga T, Goyal A and Bansal S (2016) An investigative study of the mobile operating system and handset preference. Indian Journal of Science and Technology 9(35): 1-13.
Barlow MA, Verhaal JC and Angus RW (2019) Optimal distinctiveness, strategic categorization, and product market entry on the Google Play app platform. Strategic Management Journal 40(8): 1219-1242.
Boudreau KJ (2010) Open platform strategies and innovation: Granting access vs. devolving control. Management science 56(10): 1849-1872.
Bresnahan TF and Greenstein S (1999) Technological competition and the structure of the computer industry. The Journal of Industrial Economics 47(1): 1-40.
Brown SL and Eisenhardt KM (1997) The art of continuous change: Linking complexity theory and time-paced evolution in relentlessly shifting organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly 42(1): 1-34.
Casciaro T and Piskorski MJ (2005) Power imbalance, mutual dependence, and constraint absorption: A closer look at resource dependence theory. Administrative Science Quarterly 50(2): 167-199.
Cecere G, Corrocher N and Battaglia RD (2015) Innovation and competition in the smartphone industry: Is there a dominant design? Telecommunications Policy 39(3-4): 162-175.
Cennamo C (2018) Building the value of next-generation platforms: The paradox of diminishing returns. Journal of Management 44(8): 3038-3069.
Cennamo C, Ozalp H and Kretschmer T (2018) Platform Architecture and Quality Trade-offs of Multihoming Complements. Information Systems Research 29(2): 461-478.
Cennamo C and Santalo J (2013) Platform competition: Strategic trade‐offs in platform markets. Strategic Management Journal 34(11): 1331-1350.
Chen L, Tong TW, Tang S, et al. (2022) Governance and design of digital platforms: A review and future research directions on a meta-organization. Journal of Management 48(1): 147-184.
Chen L, Zhang P, Li S, et al. (2021) Growing pains: The effect of generational product innovation on mobile games performance. Strategic Management Journal 43(4): 792-821.
Chesbrough HW and Kusunoki K (2001) The modularity trap: Innovation, technology phase shifts, and the resulting limits of virtual organizations. In: Nonaka I and Teece D (eds) Managing Industrial Knowledge. SAGE, pp.202-230.
Choi G, Nam C and Kim S (2019) The impacts of technology platform openness on application developers’ intention to continuously use a platform: From an ecosystem perspective. Telecommunications Policy 43(2): 140-153.
Christensen CM and Bower JL (1996) Customer power, strategic investment, and the failure of leading firms. Strategic Management Journal 17(3): 197-218.
Cotroneo D, Iannillo AK, Natella R, et al. (2019) Dependability assessment of the Android OS through fault injection. IEEE Transactions on Reliability 70(1): 346-361.
Cutolo D and Kenney M (2021) Platform-dependent entrepreneurs: Power asymmetries, risks, and strategies in the platform economy. Academy of Management Perspectives 35(4): 584-605.
Dacin MT (1997) Isomorphism in context: The power and prescription of institutional norms. Academy of management journal 40(1): 46-81.
Deephouse DL (1996) Does isomorphism legitimate? Academy of management journal 39(4): 1024-1039.
Deephouse DL (1999) To be different, or to be the same? It’sa question (and theory) of strategic balance. Strategic Management Journal 20(2): 147-166.
DiMaggio PJ and Powell WW (1983) The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review. 147-160.
Drees JM and Heugens PP (2013) Synthesizing and extending resource dependence theory: A meta-analysis. Journal of Management 39(6): 1666-1698.
Durand R (2006) Organizational evolution and strategic management. London, UK: Sage.
Durand R and Jourdan J (2012) Jules or Jim: Alternative conformity to minority logics. Academy of management journal 55(6): 1295-1315.
Durand R and Paolella L (2013) Category stretching: Reorienting research on categories in strategy, entrepreneurship, and organization theory. Journal of Management Studies 50(6): 1100-1123.
Durand R, Rao H and Monin P (2007) Code and conduct in French cuisine: Impact of code changes on external evaluations. Strategic Management Journal 28(5): 455-472.
Eisenhardt KM and Tabrizi BN (1995) Accelerating adaptive processes: Product innovation in the global computer industry. Administrative Science Quarterly 40(1): 84-110.
Eisenmann TR (2008) Managing Proprietary and Shared Platforms. California Management Review 50(4): 31-53.
Fixson SK and Park J-K (2008) The power of integrality: Linkages between product architecture, innovation, and industry structure. Research Policy 37(8): 1296-1316.
Garud R, Kumaraswamy A, Roberts A, et al. (2020) Liminal movement by digital platform‐based sharing economy ventures: The case of Uber Technologies. Strategic Management Journal.
Gawer A (2014) Bridging differing perspectives on technological platforms: Toward an integrative framework. Research Policy 43(7): 1239-1249.
Gawer A and Cusumano MA (2002) Platform leadership: How Intel, Microsoft, and Cisco drive industry innovation. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Gawer A and Phillips N (2013) Institutional work as logics shift: The case of Intel’s transformation to platform leader. Organization Studies 34(8): 1035-1071.
Gong T-J, Yu C-MJ and Huang K-F (2021) Strategic similarity and firm performance: Multiple replications of Deephouse (1999). Strategic Organization 19(2): 207-236.
Greenwood R and Hinings CR (1996) Understanding radical organizational change- Bringing together the old and the new institutionalism. Academy of Management Review 21(4): 1022-1054.
Grewal R, Lilien GL and Mallapragada G (2006) Location, location, location: How network embeddedness affects project success in open source systems. Management Science 52(7): 1043-1056.
Gulati R, Puranam P and Tushman M (2012) Meta‐organization design: Rethinking design in interorganizational and community contexts. Strategic Management Journal 33(6): 571-586.
Gulati R and Sytch M (2007) Dependence asymmetry and joint dependence in interorganizational relationships: Effects of embeddedness on a manufacturer’s performance in procurement relationships. Administrative Science Quarterly 52(1): 32–69.
Haans RF (2019) What's the value of being different when everyone is? The effects of distinctiveness on performance in homogeneous versus heterogeneous categories. Strategic Management Journal 40(1): 3-27.
Hannan MT, Pólos L and Carroll GR (2007a) Language matters, from logics of organization theory: Audiences, codes, and ecologies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hannan MT, Polos L and Carroll GR (2007b) Logics of organization theory: Audiences, codes, and ecologies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hippel Ev and Krogh Gv (2003) Open source software and the “private-collective” innovation model: Issues for organization science. Organization Science 14(2): 209-223.
Hsu G, Hannan MT and Koçak Ö (2009) Multiple category memberships in markets: An integrative theory and two empirical tests. American Sociological Review 74(1): 150-169.
Hu Y, Zhang H and Gao Y (2021) In search of optimal distinctiveness: Balancing conformity and differentiation via organizational learning. Management and Organization Review 17(4): 690-725.
Jacobides MG, Cennamo C and Gawer A (2018) Towards a theory of ecosystems. Strategic Management Journal 39(8): 2255-2276.
Jiang S, Yang J, Yu M, et al. (2020) Strategic conformity, organizational learning ambidexterity, and corporate innovation performance- An inverted U-shaped curve? Journal of Business Research 149: 424-433.
Kapoor R and Agarwal S (2017) Sustaining superior performance in business ecosystems: Evidence from application software developers in the iOS and Android smartphone ecosystems. Organization Science 28(3): 531-551.
Katila R and Ahuja G (2002) Something old, something new: A longitudinal study of search behavior and new product introduction. Academy of management journal 45(6): 1183-1194.
Koch S and Kerschbaum M (2014) Joining a smartphone ecosystem: Application developers’ motivations and decision criteria. Information and Software Technology 56(11): 1423-1435.
Kretschmer T and Reitzig M (2013) How Much to Integrate?-Firms’ Profit-Maximizing R&D Allocations in Emerging Standard Settings. Academy of Management Proceedings. Academy of Management Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510, 11679.
Kuratko DF, Fisher G, Bloodgood JM, et al. (2017) The paradox of new venture legitimation within an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Small Business Economics 49(1): 119-140.
Lawless MW and Anderson PC (1996) Generational technological change: Effects of innovation and local rivalry on performance. Academy of management journal 39(5): 1185-1217.
Lawrence TB (1999) Institutional strategy. Journal of Management 25(2): 161-187.
Liu X, Liu J, Zhu S, et al. (2019) Privacy risk analysis and mitigation of analytics libraries in the android ecosystem. IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing 19(5): 1184-1199.
MacCormack A, Baldwin CY and Rusnak J (2012) Exploring the duality between product and organizational architectures: A test of the “mirroring” hypothesis. Research Policy 41(8): 1309-1324.
McIntyre DP and Srinivasan A (2017) Networks, platforms, and strategy: Emerging views and next steps. Strategic Management Journal 38(1): 141-160.
Mithas S, Tafti A and Mitchell W (2013) How a firm's competitive environment and digital strategic posture influence digital business strategy. MIS quarterly 37(2): 511-536.
Mokhlis S and Yaakop AY (2012) Consumer choice criteria in mobile phone selection: An investigation of malaysian university students. International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities 2(2): 203-212.
Nagle F (2018) Learning by contributing: Gaining competitive advantage through contribution to crowdsourced public goods. Organization Science 29(4): 569-587.
Navis C and Glynn MA (2011) Legitimate distinctiveness and the entrepreneurial identity: Influence on investor judgments of new venture plausibility. Academy of Management Review 36(3): 479-499.
Oliver C (1991) Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review 16(1): 145-179.
Oliver C (1997) Sustainable competitive advantage: combining institutional and resource‐based views. Strategic Management Journal 18(9): 697-713.
Panico C and Cennamo C (2022) User preferences and strategic interactions in platform ecosystems. Strategic Management Journal 43(3): 507-529.
Porter ME (1980) Competitive Strategy:Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. New York, NY: Free.
Raju KV and Kumar DP (2015) Customer perceptions about Android OS smartphones In Hyderabad. Journal of Marketing Vistas 5(1): 43-52.
Rietveld J, Schilling MA and Bellavitis C (2019) Platform Strategy: Managing Ecosystem Value Through Selective Promotion of Complements. Organization Science 30(6): 1232-1251.
Rosch E and Mervis CB (1975) Family resemblances: Studies in the internal structure of categories. Cognitive Psychology 7(4): 573-605.
Semadeni M and Anderson BS (2010) The follower's dilemma: Innovation and imitation in the professional services industry. Academy of management journal 53(5): 1175-1193.
Singh JV, Tucker DJ and House RJ (1986) Organizational legitimacy and the liability of newness. Administrative Science Quarterly 31(2): 171-193.
Singh PV (2010) The small-world effect: The influence of macro-level properties of developer collaboration networks on open-source project success. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology 20(2): 1-27.
Singh PV, Tan Y and Mookerjee V (2011) Network effects: The influence of structural capital on open source project success. MIS quarterly 35(4): 813-829.
Snihur Y, Thomas LD and Burgelman RA (2018) An ecosystem‐level process model of business model disruption: The disruptor's gambit. Journal of Management Studies 55(7): 1278-1316.
Suchman MC (1995) Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review 20(3): 571-610.
Suddaby R, Bitektine A and Haack P (2017) Legitimacy. Academy of Management Annals 11(1): 451-478.
Taeuscher K and Rothe H (2020) Optimal distinctiveness in platform markets: Leveraging complementors as legitimacy buffers. Strategic Management Journal 42(2): 435-461.
Tatsumoto H, Ogawa K and Fujimoto T (2009) Platforms and the international division of labor: A case study on Intel’s platform business in the PC industry. In: Gawer A (ed) Platform, markets and innovation. London, UK: Edward Elgar, pp.345-369.
Thomas LD and Ritala P (2021) Ecosystem legitimacy emergence: A collective action view. Journal of Management.
Topaler B, Koçak Ö and Üsdiken B (2021) Positioning new identities for appeal: Configurations of optimal distinctiveness amid ancestral identities. Strategic Organization. 1476127021999966.
Turner SF, Mitchell W and Bettis RA (2010) Responding to rivals and complements: How market concentration shapes generational product innovation strategy. Organization Science 21(4): 854-872.
Turner SF, Mitchell W and Bettis RA (2013) Strategic momentum: How experience shapes temporal consistency of ongoing innovation. Journal of Management 39(7): 1855-1890.
Uzunca B, Rigtering JC and Ozcan P (2018) Sharing and shaping: A cross-country comparison of how sharing economy firms shape their institutional environment to gain legitimacy. Academy of Management Discoveries 4(3): 248-272.
Von Krogh G, Spaeth S and Lakhani KR (2003) Community, joining, and specialization in open source software innovation: A case study. Research Policy 32(7): 1217-1241.
Wareham J, Fox PB and Cano Giner JL (2014) Technology ecosystem governance. Organization Science 25(4): 1195-1215.
Zahra SA (1996) Technology strategy and financial performance: Examining the moderating role of the firm's competitive environment. Journal of Business Venturing 11(3): 189-219.
Zhang Y, Wang H and Zhou X (2020) Dare to be different? Conformity versus differentiation in corporate social activities of Chinese firms and market responses. Academy of management journal 63(3): 717-742.
Zhao EY, Fisher G, Lounsbury M, et al. (2017) Optimal distinctiveness: Broadening the interface between institutional theory and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal 38(1): 93-113.
Zhao EY, Ishihara M, Jennings PD, et al. (2018) Optimal distinctiveness in the console video game industry: An exemplar-based model of proto-category evolution. Organization Science 29(4): 588-611.
Zuckerman EW (1999) The categorical imperative: Securities analysts and the illegitimacy discount. American Journal of Sociology 104(5): 1398-1438.
Zuckerman EW (2016) Optimal distinctiveness revisited: An integrative framework for understanding the balance between differentiation and conformity in individual and organizational identities. In: Pratt MG, Schultz M, Ashforth BE, et al. (eds) Handbook of organizational identity. Oxford, UK.: Oxford University Press.
Zuckerman EW, Kim T-Y, Ukanwa K, et al. (2003) Robust identities or nonentities? Typecasting in the feature-film labor market. American Journal of Sociology 108(5): 1018-1074.
https://android.googlesource.com
https://phonedb.net
https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile/worldwide
https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/googles-open-source-android-now-actually-open/