Digital platforms for development: Foundations and research agenda

| DEFINING AND POSITIONING DIGITAL PLATFORMS

Digital platforms share three basic characteristics: they are technologically mediated, enable interaction between user groups and allow those user groups to carry out defined tasks (Cusumano et al., 2019; de Reuver et al., 2018; Gawer, 2009). This is reflected in a recent review on the subject, where Constantinides et al. (2018) understand digital platforms as a set of digital resources, be those services or content, which facilitate interactions between its participants. The specific nature of the platform depends, however, on the type of task its participants are trying to effect (Jacobides et al., 2018).
Definitions of digital platforms depend somewhat on the field in which they are studied. In studies concentrating on the technological components of digital platforms, the focus has been on their technological and digital characteristics such as layered architecture and modularity (Yoo, Henfridsson, & Lyytinen, 2010). In information systems, attention has also been given to the socio-technical dimensions of digital platforms, for example their impact on organisational structures or international standards (de Reuver et al., 2018). Within economics, the discussion has evolved around the demand and supply functions within these platforms and how these are different from other types of market settings (Evans & Schmalensee, 2016). From an industry point of view, digital platforms are presented in terms of characteristics such as market capitalisation, ownership, sector or industry they are situated within, governance model, country of origin, geographical reach and underlying purpose (Evans & Gawer, 2016).
Platforms are distinct from other types of digital artefacts. In their study of the internet as an information infrastructure, Hanseth and Lyytinen (2016) position applications, platforms and infrastructures as different ‘units of IT design classes’ with increasing orders of complexity in architectural design and governance. Principle differentiating features across these design classes include the degree to which they are open and shared and that control over them is decentralised. Applications lie at one extreme of this spectrum and infrastructures lie at the other. Platforms lie between them as they have a facility for being relatively open and shared but control over them is typically centralised (Hanseth & Lyytinen, 2016). Although positions of IT artefacts on this spectrum are on a continuum, for example platforms and infrastructures may share some common characteristics (Constantinides et al., 2018; Helmond et al., 2019; Plantin et al., 2018), platforms bring distinct characteristics that have unique implications for development.
We suggest that digital platforms are a distinct type of information technology (IT) artefact with distinct properties, which lend particular affordances for development. Furthermore, digital platforms are a socio-technical phenomenon that require careful consideration of how they function in a social context. When taken together, this sociotechnical perspective on platforms has consequences for developmental outcomes. For that reason, we consider their technical properties, their functioning in a social context and the resulting consequences for development in turn.

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