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Evaluative infrastructures : Accounting for platform organization

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Kornberger

    (EM - EMLyon Business School)

  • Dane Pflueger
  • Jan Mouritsen

Abstract

Platform organizations such as Uber, eBay and Airbnb represent a growing disruptive phenomenon in contemporary capitalism, transforming economic organization, the nature of work, and the distribution of wealth. This paper investigates the accounting practices that underpin this new form of organizing, and in doing so confronts a significant challenge within the accounting literature: the need to escape what Hopwood (1996) describes as its "hierarchical consciousness". In order to do so, this paper develops the concept of evaluative infrastructure which describes accounting practices that enable platform based organization. They are evaluative because they deploy a plethora of interacting devices, including rankings, ratings, reviews, and audits to establish orders of worth. They are infrastructures because they provide the invisible yet essential mechanisms for the flow of economic activity and exchange on platforms. Illustrating the concept of evaluative infrastructure with the example of eBay, the paper's contribution is to (1) provide an analytical vocabulary to capture the accounting practices underpinning platforms as new organizational forms, and in so doing (2) extend accounting scholars' analytical focus from hierarchical settings towards heterarchies. Conceptually, this shift from management accounting to evaluative infrastructures entails a focus on relationality (evaluative infrastructures do not represent or reference but relate things, people and ideas with each other); generativity (evaluative infrastructures do not territorialize objects but disclose new worlds); and new forms of control (evaluative infrastructures are not centres of calculation; rather, control is radically distributed, whilst power remains centralized).

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Kornberger & Dane Pflueger & Jan Mouritsen, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures : Accounting for platform organization," Post-Print hal-02312027, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02312027
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Hannah Bensussan, 2023. "Understanding the paradox of control and freedom of consumption under digital capitalism with Stafford Beer's cybernetic theory," CEPN Working Papers hal-04050331, HAL.
    2. Mennicken, Andrea & Kornberger, Martin, 2021. "Von performativität zu generativität: Bewertung und ihre Folgen im Kontext der Digitalisierung," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110925, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Luis Araujo & Katy Mason, 2021. "Markets, infrastructures and infrastructuring markets," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(3), pages 240-251, December.
    4. Arena, Marika & Arnaboldi, Michela & Palermo, Tommaso, 2017. "The dynamics of (dis)integrated risk management: a comparative field study," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 84285, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Vollmer, Hendrik, 2019. "Accounting for tacit coordination: The passing of accounts and the broader case for accounting theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 15-34.
    6. Plante, Maude & Free, Clinton & Andon, Paul, 2021. "Making artworks valuable: Categorisation and modes of valuation work," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    7. Thomas Wainwright, 2023. "Rental proptech platforms: Changing landlord and tenant power relations in the UK private rental sector?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(2), pages 339-358, March.
    8. Gerber, Christine & Krzywdzinski, Martin, 2019. "Brave New Digital Work? New Forms of Performance Control in Crowdwork," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 121-143.
    9. Daniela Ruggeri & Antonio Leotta & Carmela Rizza, 2023. "Digitalisation and accounting language games in organisational contexts," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(3), pages 817-838, September.
    10. Rebecca Vine, 2020. "Riskwork in the construction of Heathrow Terminal 2," SPRU Working Paper Series 2020-20, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    11. Andrew, Jane & Baker, Max, 2020. "The radical potential of leaks in the shadow accounting project: The case of US oil interests in Nigeria," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Gernot Grabher & Erwin van Tuijl, 2020. "Uber-production: From global networks to digital platforms," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(5), pages 1005-1016, August.
    13. Wai Fong Chua, 2022. "Matters of concern and engaged research," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4615-4627, December.
    14. Pflueger, Dane & Palermo, Tommaso & Martinez, Daniel, 2019. "Thinking infrastructure and the organization of markets: the creation of a legal market for cannabis in Colorado," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91412, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Leoni, Giulia & Parker, Lee D., 2019. "Governance and control of sharing economy platforms: Hosting on Airbnb," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    16. Andreas J. Steur & Mischa Seiter, 2021. "Properties of feedback mechanisms on digital platforms: an exploratory study," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(4), pages 479-526, May.
    17. Hall, Matthew & O'Dwyer, Brendan, 2017. "Accounting, non-governmental organizations and civil society: The importance of nonprofit organizations to understanding accounting, organizations and society," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 1-5.
    18. Knudsen, Dan-Richard, 2020. "Elusive boundaries, power relations, and knowledge production: A systematic review of the literature on digitalization in accounting," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    19. Freida Ozavize Ayodele & Liu Yao & Hasnah Binti Haron & Eyasan Leslie Dabor, 2019. "Knowledge Management and Institutional Accounting Functional Effectiveness: Evidence from Malaysia," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(02), pages 1-27, June.

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