Multi-Sided Platform: How Digital Technology Supports Collaborative Action for Sustainable Development

Objectives. Sustainability is today a key challenge for decision makers and management both in the public and private sectors. Disruptive trends and technologies such as collaborative innovation and digital platforms are creating new opportunities for sharing and pursuing sustainability goals across a wide range of projects and initiatives worldwide. The goal of this article is to derive a conceptual framework of multi-sided platform as a promising paradigm and techno-organizational approach to support sustainable development and the resolution of complex societal issues. Methodology. A design science approach is used to derive the conceptual framework, also based on a specialized literature review. A single case study is adopted to provide an illustrative application of the defined model. Findings. The multi-sided platform presented includes four key dimensions related to what, how, why and who aspects, which are discussed and illustrated also using an application of collective intelligence to identify solutions to the climate change problem. Research limits. The framework needs further theoretical development and practical validation in order to strengthen the robustness of conceptual design and the potential of application in real-life scenarios. Practical implications. The model represents a knowledge platform, which can drive further applications in the field and a management model to support design of initiatives and projects aimed to use multi-sided platform as operational model to improve sustainability. Originality of the study. The main value added of the study is to apply an emerging management paradigm to define new ways of using collective intelligence for enhanced social development.