Beyond a technological tool: How a platform as a meta-organization enables a successful public service project in China

Abstract

Successful public service projects are few. An extreme case in this study shows that the performance of a public service project in Beijing adopting a platform not only meets but goes beyond the expectations of the policy designer. Existing studies on platforms focus on the impact of a platform from a static perspective in information systems studies, but have not investigated the transformational process where a platform was built and functioned. A platform development and governance model was developed. Our findings suggest that in a public service project, (1) working as a technological tool, the platform built through contextual pressures, authorized and technological capacities of multiple stakeholders affected the roles of the government and social sector entities, and then reorganized the services to reduce corruption risks and standardized actions to better serve the people; and (2) working as a meta-organization, the platform was built through the authorized and link-building capacities of stakeholders. It integrated multiple stakeholders to better serve the people and calmed conflicts and catalyzed innovations to build norms to regulate actions and offer better service. The above governance factors promoted the multi-oriented performance of the project. In the course of generating the grounded model, we clarify the key factors in the dynamic process of how a platform works.