Strategies of Digital Platform Companies when Seeking Legitimacy in New Markets

Digital platforms attempting to penetrate markets and establish novel businesses need to not only seek market share and profit, but also to establish their legitimacy—that is, the social acceptability of their business operations. Information Systems and Management are just beginning to understand digital platform strategies for establishing legitimacy. There is also relatively little attention to how the special features of digital platforms influence their legitimation strategies. Through a multi-method study on ride-hailing platforms in Southeast Asia, I show that digital platforms trying to penetrate markets can wield known legitimation strategies in exceptional ways, as well as employ some manoeuvres that can be considered novel. I contribute to the literature on the strategic management of information systems by uncovering how platform features other than network effects, such as asset provision offloading and intermediation, accord strategic advantage to the legitimation efforts of digital platform firms