Events

Dr. Godo Ramizo
Research Fellow
Nanyang Technological University

Digital platforms attempting to establish novel businesses and continue operations need more than just market share and profit. They also need to establish their legitimacy—that is, the social and institutional acceptability of their business operations. Information Systems and Management are just beginning to understand digital platform strategies for establishing legitimacy. There is also relatively little attention to how the special features of digital platforms influence their legitimation strategies. Through a multi-year, multi-method study on ride-hailing platforms in Southeast Asia, I contribute to the literature on the strategic management of information systems by uncovering how platform features other than pure network effects, such as investment delegation and market intermediation, accord strategic advantage to the legitimation efforts of digital platform firms. These theoretical contributions also have managerial and policy implications in that they explain how digital platform firms can strategise to maintain business operations despite complex institutional opposition.