Government-as-a-platform: enabling participation in a government service innovation ecosystem

Abstract

Platforms are revolutionizing every dimension of our economy, society and lives. They are changing boundaries, tasks and power structures of existing industry ecosystems as well as the nature of competition in different markets. The core driver for this transformation is that platforms provide potential for a new kind of value creation by allowing organizations to create entire ecosystems that leverage the expertise of a diverse pool of external complementors, resulting in an unprecedented scope of innovation. As a result, it has been suggested that government-as-a-platform, which is simply defined as a government service innovation ecosystem, could be a revolutionary solution for improving public service delivery.

The most critical determinant of any platform’s success is its ability to attract participants to join and contribute to it, since on its own a platform cannot create value. The objective of this study was to discover how a government service innovation ecosystem, government-as-a-platform, should be designed so that different groups of actors, such as public and private sector organizations, would want to contribute to it, and generate innovative solutions for delivering public services in an improved way.

The empirical part of this study was conducted as an embedded single case study focusing on the healthcare industry. Research data was collected through semi-structured thematic interviews with Finnish public and private sector actors representing different sides of the platform. Data analysis was performed as an iterative process, which included transcription, categorization and coding, and eventually synthesis of the data. Furthermore, the research findings were compared with existing literature to improve the validity and conceptual level of the findings.

The research findings demonstrate that a platform that is open, flexible, transparent and accessible attracts participation. More specifically, convenience in terms of quick, easy and agile processes, as well as information about the platform is critical for platform contribution. In terms of participant motivations, company recognition, learning, knowledge sharing and contribution to the greater good were discovered to drive platform participation. In addition, the research findings revealed that factors related to benefits provided by the platform, such as market access and operational efficiencies, encourage platform participation. Finally, it was noted that a supporting infrastructure, which consists of processes, organizational structures, regulation, leadership and a common vision should be in place to facilitate the existence of platforms.