Industrial Internet is one of the novel paradigms in the recent years, it has many implications in both practical and literature reviews for almost all the industry sectors. Industrial Internet is a broad subject and many concepts are related to it such as Industry 4.0, CPS, smart manufacturing or IoT. One of the most talked topics related to Industrial Internet are platforms. They are a revolution in the way companies communicate, partner, share and create value.The purpose of the thesis is to develop a better understanding of the role of openness, which is a fundamental characteristic of the II-platforms in which the degree of participation of end-users, app developers and platform owners varies depending on the degree of openness. The impact of selecting a platform based on its openness is crucial for a company's long-term strategy.This thesis concentrates on the risks and downsides of openness. The thesis focuses on the risks given that there is already an extensive research in the benefits that platforms provide. These downsides are evaluated in terms of switching costs through two interviews that provide an overview of the role of openness and its effects on the end-user.The results show that openness plays an important role in the decision-making process. Companies are eager to know methods to evaluate its impacts and switching costs is an excellent tool well-known by companies. In addition, depending on the business openness influences positively or negatively or both, but it definitively has an impact in the long-term.
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