Unlocking the potential of knowledge economy for rural resilience: The role of digital platforms

Abstract

Due to urban-centric development paradigms, actors in the rural business ecosystem and related interaction spaces have become adrift, resulting in the fragility of the rural knowledge economy (K. E.) and rural decline. Diverse organizations, including not-for-profits, civil societies, private agencies, and cooperatives, have taken cognizance of this significant issue and have promoted platform-based enterprises. While the literature emphasizes the role of digital platforms in strengthening rural resilience, it does not elaborate on the underlying mechanism. Consequently, the relationship between the K. E. spaces topologically mapped on the platform, contributing to increased actor interaction and rural resilience, remains underexplored. This motivates us to pose a fundamental question: Can digital platforms operating in rural areas function as K.E. spaces and foster actor interactions to strengthen rural resilience? Theoretically grounded in network externality theory, the triple-helix model, and the Resilience Assessment Benchmarking and Impact Toolkit framework, this study adopts a multiple case study approach utilizing literature synthesis, archival sources, and primary data from key informants of selected platform organizations operational in rural areas. The findings show that K. E. spaces enrich the rural knowledge economy by onboarding missing actors and augmenting proximity. This leads to increased actor interactions and enhanced rural resilience. This study proposes an emergent framework expositing a nexus between digital platforms, K. E. spaces, and rural resilience attributes and contributes to the growing body of rural resilience literature.