Co-creation and fine-tuning of boundary resources in small-scale platformization

Abstract

Most research on platform innovation studies the phenomena from a distance due to lack of access. This paper reports from within an action research case of platform development in a small-scale context. The case is based on a regional business initiative with the goal to establish an arena for mobile commerce and stimulate local industry growth. It was conducted in collaboration between researchers and third-party developers. The article shows how the initial phases of platformization are characterized by socio-technical arrangements, co-creation of boundary resources and intimate knowledge communication. The paper contributes to platform research by acknowledging a small-scale context for platform research. It further develops distributed tuning of boundary resources into an intimate fine-tuning process that we illustrate is valid for a small-scale context.