Kill Two Birds with One Stone: Using Multihoming Boundary Resources in Mobile App Development

Platform complementors, or third-party software developers, are vital in enhancing platform ecosystems' functionality and services through app creation and deployment. With mobile app development becoming increasingly expensive and laborious, complementors must strategically allocate limited resources, which involves selecting which platforms to target and identifying suitable boundary resources, such as software development kits (SDKs). While complementors may strive to optimize market reach by creating apps for multiple platforms, this could diminish available resources per app version and potentially undermine app quality. Multihoming SDKs address this concern by allowing app distribution across platforms using a unified codebase; however, this method may impact app quality due to insufficient platform specificity. This research delves into the impact of employing multihoming SDKs on app quality, providing theoretical insights at the nexus of technical design and platform governance while offering practical guidance to complementors in managing trade-offs when aligning boundary resource selection with strategic goals.