Governing digital platform ecosystems for social options

Abstract

To date, there is little insight into how digital platforms might be governed towards the creation of social value. We argue that digital platforms can contribute to the creation of social value by enabling social options. Thus, we are concerned about how digital platform ecosystems may be governed towards the enablement of social options. We report on the results from our longitudinal qualitative case study of a digital platform employed by ministries of health in more than 70 low- and middle-income countries. We trace the formation and subsequent shaping of governance mechanisms employed to enable social options across national borders and domains. We develop a model of platform governance that shows how such mechanisms are shaped over time through resourcing, capacitating and purposing processes. These three processes play distinct yet complementary roles in governing for social options.