Platforms for good

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Platforms have become ubiquitous, and their economic relevance is prominent. They have transformed sectors, shaping the competitive advantage of long-standing players, their practices, and their dynamics.

Platforms have a crucial influence on market competitiveness, for example, among vendors or between platform providers. Instead, the contribution of platforms to social change is poorly examined despite an expanding array of public and private initiatives.

The microfinance industry has also seen an evolution due to the rise of digital platforms. Lendings that used to be granted in local networks can now aspire for a global reach; information transparency has increased.

In front of these fundamental changes, some relationships might change, while others remain unaltered. For example, the comparison between microlending institutions becomes more complicated. Organizations can benchmark themselves with the other peers active on the platform. Viceversa, culture should remain a stable trait that shapes interactions in the micro-lending industry, when this one goes digital. But is it the case?

Design platforms for grand challenges

What are the dimensions of a platform design that enables both sustainability and value generation for society and the platform’s market? I discuss this issue in this on Diagonalising.

Platforms and their Societal Impact. A Force for Good?

Platform businesses connect at least two sides, e.g. a buyer and a seller of a good or service, and have grown tremendously in importance in recent years. Indeed, platform business models form the basis of many household names in social media, ridesharing, operating systems and many more. The organization of such platforms is especially interesting because much of the value of a platform is created by complementary actors (individuals or firms) outside of the control of the platform business. This creates interesting dynamics between platform and complementors and between different platforms competing for the best complementors

During Fall 2021, I organized and moderated the online podium discussion “Platforms and their Societal Impact. A Force for Good?” in cooperation with the and the CAS Research Group’‘Platforms as Organizations’’.

I invited Dr. Anil Doshi (UCL/CAS Fellow), Fredrik Gulowsen (Nyby), Stina Heikkila (Boundaryless), Prof. Dr. Tobias Kretschmer (Head of CAS Research Group/LMU), and Prof. Gurneeta Vasudeva Singh (University of Minnesota/CAS Fellow) to discuss:

The paradox(es) of the platforms’ era.
The solutions that platforms offer to address societal problems: decentralization, governance, and the management of the communities.

How can platforms help fight grand challenges? Can they contribute to sustainability?

Mission-driven platforms like Amnesty International Decoder and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap are on the rise. These societal platforms address challenges such as fighting poverty, education, climate actions, and sustainable cities and communities on a large scale and at speed by orchestrating an ecosystem and creating value for the market and society.

Practice generally highlights that the platform’s philanthropic nature and the pro-social mission determine a very peculiar design and governance for those organizations. Yet, research in the field is still scarce.

On November 3rd 2021, I organized the workshop “Societal Platforms: Between Markets and Grand Challenges with Madeleine Rauch” (CBS), Georg Reischauer (WU Vienna), Sebastian Geiger (LMU Munich) and in cooperation with the Knowledge & Innovation Interest Group of the Strategic Management Society.

We asked Shaz Ansari (Cambridge University, UK), Carliss Baldwin (Harvard Business School, US), Anil Doshi (UCL, UK), Dror Etzion (McGill University, CA), and Gurneeta Vasudeva (University of Minnesota, US) to express their take on the topic.

Recordings are available on the Strategic Management Society channel.

Academic Project | Giulia Solinas

Platforms for good

Design platforms for grand challenges

Platforms and their Societal Impact. A Force for Good?

How can platforms help fight grand challenges? Can they contribute to sustainability?