Strategies for Addressing Big Tech Dominance: Regulation, Reform, or Revolution?

The Big Tech firms have captured substantial economic value with their dominant digital platforms, while raising major concerns for stakeholders and society. However, the field of strategy remains largely focused on examining their value creation, leaving remedies to other disciplines. In this essay, we examine three approaches to addressing the consequences of Big Tech platform dominance, highlighting their merits and limitations: regulation through the judicial system, voluntary reform of corporate purpose, and revolution through the design of alternative platforms that prioritize societal values. We discuss how these approaches can be complementary and encourage strategy scholars to actively engage in this conversation by revisiting core assumptions, theorizing, and testing new business models for digital platforms that can challenge the Big Tech firms’ hegemony.