Orchestrating a digital platform ecosystem to address societal challenges: A robust action perspective. (December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Addo, Atta
• Is Part Of: Journal of information technology. Volume 37:Number 4(2022)
• Page Start: 359
• Page End: 386
• Publication Date: 2022-12
• Subjects: Digital innovation -- E-governance -- digital platform -- ecosystem -- orchestration -- societal challenge -- robust action -- digital identity -- Aadhaar; Information technology -- Periodicals; Information storage and retrieval systems -- Periodicals; Information resources management -- Periodicals; 658.40380285
• DOI: 10.1177/02683962221088333
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0268-3962

Abstract

Orchestration of digital platform ecosystems has been well examined in the context of markets and the private sector where an orchestrator is a resourceful firm exploiting commercial opportunities in an industry. However, little is known about how it occurs when a government organization orchestrates to address societal challenges. We build upon the construct of "robust action"—identified with chess masters who play to advance a broad strategy while simultaneously maintaining flexibility—to explain how orchestration by a government organization might overcome initiation, stabilization, expansion, and meta-governance challenges through digital platform-enabled participative architecture, multivocal inscriptions, and distributed experimentation. Evidence for our theoretical framework is drawn from empirical studies of the Aadhaar, a platform ecosystem orchestrated to address multiple societal challenges stemming from identity and its management.