Corporate Platforms
Corporate platforms are digital ecosystems that facilitate interactions between multiple user groups, acting as intermediaries for data exchange, service provision, and value creation. They serve as critical nodes in the broader data infrastructure, often governing the flow, storage, and monetization of big-data.
Governance Models
The governance of data within these ecosystems is not monolithic but varies across distinct models. Recent scholarship highlights a shift from purely technical management to complex socio-technical regulation.
- Dominant Corporate Model: Characterized by centralized control where platform owners dictate terms of service, data extraction protocols, and algorithmic logic. This model prioritizes scalability and proprietary advantage.
- Emerging Alternatives: Research identifies four distinct models of data-management emerging within the current platform society, challenging the hegemony of the dominant corporate structure Micheli - Emerging models of data governance.
- These models reflect the interplay between data politics and data policy, moving beyond binary public/private distinctions.
- Key factors include the role of digital platforms as regulatory actors and the infrastructure-level decisions that shape user agency.
Key Dynamics
- Datafication: Platforms operate in an age of datafication, where social practices and contexts are transformed into data for processing. This transforms raw information into capital, influencing how platforms are designed and governed.
- Infrastructure as Governance: The technical architecture of platforms—servers, APIs, algorithms—is inherently political, embedding specific values and power relations into the data infrastructure.
- Multi-stakeholder Interaction: Unlike traditional firms, platforms rely on network effects, creating complex dependencies between users, producers, and the platform owner, necessitating nuanced governance frameworks.
References
- Micheli, M., Ponti, M., Craglia, M., & Berti Suman, A. (2017/2020). In the age of datafication: Emerging models of data governance. Springer. DOI: 10.1177/2053951720948087