IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v76y2024ics0160791x23002191.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital platforms’ strategies in Indonesia: Navigating between technology and informal economy

Author

Listed:
  • Prasetyo, Eko Heru

Abstract

So far, research on platform-driven firms has been focusing on regulatory cracks. In an emerging market, however, the informal economy – a gap between legal and illegal – is a potential opportunity to increase technology-driven ventures. This study examines how platform-driven firms assist informal economy activities in exploiting technology and how the different traits between informal economy and technology firms shape their interaction. Using a qualitative approach, I presented multiple case studies from 22 interviews with start-up founders and managers. The result showed four types of interaction of platform-driven firms accommodating the informal economy: service standardization, existent community reorganization, non-employee co-creation, and tool-based collaboration. This study sheds light on practical approaches for platform-driven ventures in juxtaposing traditionality with modernity. Despite platforms driving informal to become more accessible, it is lucrative for the government to arrange reliable incentives and frameworks for harnessing the informal and digital sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Prasetyo, Eko Heru, 2024. "Digital platforms’ strategies in Indonesia: Navigating between technology and informal economy," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:76:y:2024:i:c:s0160791x23002191
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102414
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X23002191
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102414?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven Si & David Ahlstrom & Jiang Wei & John Cullen, 2020. "Business, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Toward Poverty Reduction," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1-2), pages 1-20, January.
    2. Rafael La Porta & Andrei Shleifer, 2014. "Informality and Development," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(3), pages 109-126, Summer.
    3. Colin C. Williams & Alvaro Martinez–Perez & Abbi M. Kedir, 2017. "Informal Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies: The Impacts of Starting up Unregistered on firm Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(5), pages 773-799, September.
    4. Gawer, Annabelle, 2014. "Bridging differing perspectives on technological platforms: Toward an integrative framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(7), pages 1239-1249.
    5. Satish Nambisan, 2017. "Digital Entrepreneurship: Toward a Digital Technology Perspective of Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(6), pages 1029-1055, November.
    6. Klapper, Leora & Laeven, Luc & Rajan, Raghuram, 2006. "Entry regulation as a barrier to entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 591-629, December.
    7. Quirós, Cipriano & Portela, Javier & Marín, Raquel, 2021. "Differentiated models in the collaborative transport economy: A mixture analysis for Blablacar and Uber," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. E. Mitchell Church & Richelle L. Oakley, 2018. "Etsy and the long-tail: how microenterprises use hyper-differentiation in online handicraft marketplaces," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 883-898, December.
    9. Erkko Autio & Kun Fu, 2015. "Economic and political institutions and entry into formal and informal entrepreneurship," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 67-94, March.
    10. Marleen Wierenga, 2020. "Uncovering the scaling of innovations developed by grassroots entrepreneurs in low-income settings," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1-2), pages 63-90, January.
    11. Juho Hamari & Mimmi Sjöklint & Antti Ukkonen, 2016. "The sharing economy: Why people participate in collaborative consumption," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(9), pages 2047-2059, September.
    12. Andrei Hagiu & Julian Wright, 2015. "Marketplace or Reseller?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(1), pages 184-203, January.
    13. Colin C. Williams & Sara Nadin, 2010. "Entrepreneurship And The Informal Economy: An Overview," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(04), pages 361-378.
    14. Raghu Garud & Henri A. Schildt & Theresa K. Lant, 2014. "Entrepreneurial Storytelling, Future Expectations, and the Paradox of Legitimacy," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(5), pages 1479-1492, October.
    15. Afolabi, Joshua Adeyemi, 2023. "Advancing digital economy in Africa: The role of critical enablers," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    16. Babbitt, Laura G. & Brown, Drusilla & Mazaheri, Nimah, 2015. "Gender, Entrepreneurship, and the Formal–Informal Dilemma: Evidence from Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 163-174.
    17. Garry D. Bruton & David Ahlstrom & Han–Lin Li, 2010. "Institutional Theory and Entrepreneurship: Where Are We Now and Where Do We Need to Move in the Future?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(3), pages 421-440, May.
    18. Thai, Mai Thi Thanh & Turkina, Ekaterina, 2014. "Macro-level determinants of formal entrepreneurship versus informal entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 490-510.
    19. Mark Graham & Isis Hjorth & Vili Lehdonvirta, 2017. "Digital labour and development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 23(2), pages 135-162, May.
    20. Ford, Robert C. & Richard, Brendan & Ciuchta, Michael P., 2015. "Crowdsourcing: A new way of employing non-employees?," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 377-388.
    21. Garry D Bruton & Susanna Khavul & Helmuth Chavez, 2011. "Microlending in emerging economies: Building a new line of inquiry from the ground up," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 42(5), pages 718-739, June.
    22. Rothenberg, Alexander D. & Gaduh, Arya & Burger, Nicholas E. & Chazali, Charina & Tjandraningsih, Indrasari & Radikun, Rini & Sutera, Cole & Weilant, Sarah, 2016. "Rethinking Indonesia’s Informal Sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 96-113.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wei, Shihao & Su, Zhongfeng & Ahlstrom, David & Wu, Zhan, 2023. "State fragility and informal entrepreneurship: The moderating effects of human capital under varying temporal orientations," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(1).
    2. Colin C. Williams & Abbi M. Kedir, 2017. "Evaluating The Impacts Of Starting Up Unregistered On Firm Performance In Africa," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(03), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Esther Salvi & Frank-Martin Belz & Sophie Bacq, 2023. "Informal Entrepreneurship: An Integrative Review and Future Research Agenda," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(2), pages 265-303, March.
    4. Sam Z. Njinyah & Simplice A. Asongu, 2023. "Unregistered Firms, Financial Access and Innovation," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 32(2), pages 307-346, July.
    5. Sana Ullah & Colin C. Williams & Babur Wasim Arif, 2019. "The Impacts Of Informality On Enterprise Innovation, Survival And Performance: Some Evidence From Pakistan," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(03), pages 1-19, September.
    6. Colin C Williams & Abbi M. Kedir, 2016. "Business Registration And Firm Performance: Some Lessons From India," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(03), pages 1-19, September.
    7. Elaine Laing & André Stel & David J. Storey, 2022. "Formal and informal entrepreneurship: a cross-country policy perspective," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 807-826, October.
    8. Colin C. Williams & Abbi M. Kedir, 2019. "Explaining cross-country variations in the prevalence of informal sector competitors: lessons from the World Bank Enterprise Survey," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 677-696, September.
    9. Colin C. Williams & Brunilda Kosta, 2019. "Evaluating Institutional Theories Of Informal Sector Entrepreneurship: Some Lessons From Albania," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(02), pages 1-17, June.
    10. Islam, Asif M. & Amin, Mohammad, 2023. "The gender labor productivity gap across informal firms," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    11. Marcus Box & Karl Gratzer & Xiang Lin, 2023. "Self-employment, corruption, and property rights: a comparative analysis of European and CEE economies," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 1-29, January.
    12. Sam Njinyah & Simplice A. Asongu, 2022. "The relationship between firms that start operating as unregistered and firms’ innovation: the moderating effect of access to finance," Working Papers 22/099, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    13. Jie Wu & Steven Si & Zhiyang Liu, 2022. "Entrepreneurship in Asia: Entrepreneurship knowledge when East meets West," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(3), pages 317-342, July.
    14. Jessen, Jonas & Kluve, Jochen, 2021. "The effectiveness of interventions to reduce informality in low- and middle-income countries," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 138.
    15. Colin C. Williams & Abbi M. Kedir, 2017. "Starting-up unregistered and firm performance in Turkey," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 797-817, September.
    16. Colovic, Ana & Misganaw, Bisrat A. & Assefa, Dawit Z., 2022. "Liability of informality and firm participation in global value chains," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(1).
    17. Colin C. Williams & Slavko Bezeredi, 2018. "Evaluating The Impact Of Informal Sector Competition On Firm Performance: Some Lessons From South-East Europe," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(04), pages 1-14, December.
    18. Colin C. Williams & Abbi Kedir, 2018. "Explaining Cross-National Variations In The Prevalence Of Informal Sector Entrepreneurship: Lessons From A Survey Of 142 Countries," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(01), pages 1-22, March.
    19. Jianhong Zhang & Désirée Gorp & Henk Kievit, 2023. "Digital technology and national entrepreneurship: An ecosystem perspective," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 1077-1105, June.
    20. Floridi, A. & Demena, B.A. & Wagner, N., 2019. "Shedding light on the shadows of informality," ISS Working Papers - General Series 642, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:76:y:2024:i:c:s0160791x23002191. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.