Abstract
A platform is a triadic exchanging system with two-sided customers, it faces heterogeneous or even conflicting consumer needs from both sides. According to the theory of inventive problem solving, needs' contradictions are an important source of innovation. Adopting different customer orientation (CO) strategies will affect the platform's utilization of customer needs and thus influence the results of innovation. Our study divides platform CO into one-sided CO and two-sided CO and compares their relative effects on a platform's radical and incremental innovation. We also assess whether the impacts are conditional on the platform's top management team's (TMT) formal and informal status. Archival data from 126 electronic platforms revealed that two-sided CO promotes both radical and incremental innovation, but one-sided CO influences incremental innovation. Furthermore, TMT formal status positively moderates the impact of CO on radical innovation, but TMT informal status negatively moderates the effect of CO on incremental innovation.