Background: Global digital platforms lower entry barriers for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by providing access to international customers, payments, and logistics. Yet they also concentrate power in platform governance and algorithmic control, shaping visibility, conversion, and even continued market access.Methods: This review synthesizes research on platform ecosystems, institutional trust, online reputation systems, and cross-border e-commerce governance. We develop an integrative model that links governance design (rules, enforcement, data rights) to trust formation and reputation accumulation, and from there to SME growth trajectories.Results: SMEs grow when platform rules are predictable, enforcement is transparent, and reputation signals are credible. Growth can stall under opaque ranking, abrupt policy shifts, weak dispute resolution, and manipulation of reviews or feedback. We identify governance levers—verification, escrow and dispute resolution, transparency and explainability, data access and portability, and multi-homing compatibility—that shape trust and reputation under cross-border institutional distance. Recent evidence highlights the role of platform governance in seller trust in cross-border contexts, and the vulnerability created by algorithmic ranking opacity.Conclusions: Sustainable SME growth on global platforms is an institutional problem as much as a marketing problem. Resilience depends on rule literacy, disciplined reputation strategy, and governance-aware diversification (multi-homing and off-platform customer development) to reduce exposure to de-ranking and sudden rule changes.
Oana Branzei (Fri,) studied this question.