How do localized socio-economic platform ecosystems emerge?: a mobile platform to bring the market to villagers in Himalayan forests

Disasters like forest fires have become a persistent challenge in Himalayan regions due to highly inflammable Pine leaves. Solutions like producing bio-briquettes require involvement of local villagers, which depends on creating socio-economic and social entrepreneurship opportunities. Our research addresses these challenges by developing and evaluating governance interventions to connect villagers with local market through a mobile app platform and shape an ecosystem. We conduct an interpretive case study based on literature on digital platform ecosystems and multi-sided platforms. We use activity theory to analyze case data on implementation of governance interventions and behavior of ecosystem actors towards the challenge of producing and selling pine briquettes through the platform. Our findings suggest that characteristic features of a platform ecosystem running in a socio-economic setting differ substantially from commercial ecosystems. Our research could be one of the first to contribute to digital platforms for development in a local socioeconomic context.