What have we learned about the internationalization of digital platform firms? Orchestration, legitimation, and the endogenous role of institutions

Digital platform firms (DPFs) have transformed global markets through multi-sided business models, network effects, and ecosystem governance, enabling rapid expansion. Unlike traditional and other digital firms, DPFs scale globally from inception and often disrupt institutional environments, creating discontinuous change. This article offers a systematic domain-based review of the internationalization of DPFs by analyzing 95 articles published from 2001 to 2025. This research contributes by chronicling the extant literature, extracting theories, context, characteristics, factors, and methods used to study DPFs internationalization. Building on the “strategy tripod” framework, we propose an integrative framework that incorporates multidirectional interaction between firm-level, market, and institutional characteristics shaping DPFs’ internationalization. Following the framework, we suggest future research directions and highlight an approach that positions institutions not merely as exogenous constraints but as dynamic, endogenous factors co-evolving with digital platform firms through mechanisms of orchestration and legitimation.