The rise of the platform economy: an institutional perspective
Channel: Crowd Expedition
Date: 2018-04-25

Keynote by Koen Frenken at the workshop: “Platform Economy: Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Public Policy Perspectives”

"In this talk, I will describe platforms as a new institutional form that combines the institutional logics of the market and the corporation in a radically new way. As a “hybrid organization” with contradicting logics, platforms struggle to gain legitimacy from more established organizations, but they can nevertheless continue to grow by invoking digital market regulations. Insight in institutional tensions also help to explain some of the recent changes in how platforms operate. I
will go into the cases of the cleaning platform Helpling in The Netherlands and taxi platform UberX in the US as two examples. Finally, I will sketch six possible scenarios that may resolve the current contractions and may render platforms more legitimate."

Organized by:
Koen Frenken, Utrecht University

Sponsored by:
Utrecht University, Strategic Theme Institutions for Open Societies
NWO Nationale Wetenschapsagenda, Route Op Weg Naar Veerkrachtige Samenlevingen