1. An API Morphology Analysis of Different Organizations in the API Economy
Joan Disho, , Master Thesis Proposal

2. Outline API Economy Definition Motivation through raised questions
Research Approach
API Morphology Analysis of Successful Organizations in the API Economy.
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3. API Economy
An Application Programming Interface (API) is a machine-readable interface trough which IT applications or data repositories make their functionality or data accessible to another authorized application or machine.
In today’s world of expanding interconnectivity, APIs have emerged as important tools for providing access to data and capabilities beyond the firewall.
Opening up APIs has led to a range of new business models and monetizing strategies, which in turn created a new market with complex relations. This new market is summarized under the term the API Economy.
API Morphology Analysis of Successful Organizations in the API Economy.
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4. Overview of relevant research questions
What are the top ten most successful APIs?
What are the business strategies that the companies behind these APIs use? (Business Layer)
What kind of technology these APIs use? (Technology Layer)
What policies do companies behind these APIs apply? (Legal Layer)
What characteristics do the top ten most successful APIs have?
Do the top ten most successful APIs have commonalities or differences with regards to their characteristics?
API Morphology Analysis of Successful Organizations in the API Economy.
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5. Approach for answering the research questions
1. Identify
2. Analyze
3. Create
Identify the most successful established APIs according to Programmable Web
Decompose and analyze each API to define its business strategies, API technology and API policy
Morphology model. Providing clear guidance to classify the APIs
5. Extract
4. Define
Extract commonalities and differences in the API characteristics to identify best practices.
Map the APIs in this model to see how APIs fit in there and also to have a clear view how APIs differ from each other
API Morphology Analysis of Successful Organizations in the API Economy.
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6. Prof. Dr.
Florian Matthes
17132