Understanding Platform Transformations Through Routine Interactions

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss and consider routines that operate on interfaces enabling transformation of and within platforms. We view these transformations through specific routine interactions, which enable modules and platforms to either bring about transformations or to respond to them. We do this by introducing the concept of transformational routines and justify that it provides micro-level insight into different cause-and-effect relationships. Moreover, while traditional theories of platform entity transformations tend to focus on general evolutionary outlines and continuous processes, transformational routines provide temporally and spatially limited settings in which to observe their critical turning points. Finally, with the help of an illustration on a case study of Tesco, a UK grocery retailer, we argue that all these properties enable efficient collection of rich data with applications to both routine and module- and platform-level analyses.