Digital platforms for development: Foundations and research agenda

TLDR

Digital platforms are central to the global economy and hold great potential for development in the global South, yet scholarly attention has largely focused on business, leaving their developmental implications understudied due to conceptual ambiguity, geographic and sectoral spread, and complex institutional and technological interdependencies. This article aims to clarify what digital platforms mean for development by defining them, distinguishing transaction from innovation platforms, outlining their key characteristics, contextualizing them socio‑technically, and reviewing current literature to identify gaps and propose six research questions. The authors define digital platforms, distinguish transaction and innovation types, describe their key characteristics and socio‑technical context, and conduct an extensive review to map developmental goals, tensions, and gaps, thereby proposing six research questions to guide future studies.

Abstract

Digital platforms hold a central position in today's world economy and are said to offer a great potential for the economies and societies in the global South. Yet, to date, the scholarly literature on digital platforms has largely concentrated on business while their developmental implications remain understudied. In part, this is because digital platforms are a challenging research object due to their lack of conceptual definition, their spread across different regions and industries, and their intertwined nature with institutions, actors and digital technologies. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the ongoing debate in information systems and ICT4D research to understand what digital platforms mean for development. To do so, we first define what digital platforms are and differentiate between transaction and innovation platforms, and explain their key characteristics in terms of purpose, research foundations, material properties and business models. We add the socio‐technical context digital platforms operate and the linkages to developmental outcomes. We then conduct an extensive review to explore what current areas, developmental goals, tensions and issues emerge in the literature on platforms and development and identify relevant gaps in our knowledge. We later elaborate on six research questions to advance the studies on digital platforms for development: on indigenous innovation, digital platforms and institutions, on exacerbation of inequalities, on alternative forms of value, on the dark side of platforms and on the applicability of the platform typology for development.