Eshraghian, F. and Omidvar, O. 2019. A performative view on boundary spanning in platforms: the case study of cryptocurrencies on GitHub. European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) 2019. Edinburgh, UK 04 - 06 Jul 2019
| Title | A performative view on boundary spanning in platforms: the case study of cryptocurrencies on GitHub |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eshraghian, F. and Omidvar, O. |
| Type | Conference paper |
| Abstract | Boundary spanning describes the process through which actors bridge organisational, disciplinary, and technological boundaries to access new resources and knowledge, or to innovate. Boundary spanning is under-explored in two respects. First, often contributions have viewed boundaries from the point of view of a focal firm crossing boundaries of which enables exploration of new technological or disciplinary domains. However, not always boundary spanning is triggered internally. For instance, with the surge of digitization and prevalence of platforms organisational boundaries are becoming increasingly exposed to other organisations in the field, making it easier for actors outside an organisation to initiate boundary crossing. Second, research on boundary spanning has predominantly focused on the role of actors and objects in this process. While research has extensively explored the characteristics of boundary spanners and the roles played by boundary objects, the actions for boundary spanning have not got enough attention. Therefore, we are less clear about the patterns of actions as actors engage in spanning of boundaries. For these reasons, in this paper, we ask through what actions actors span boundaries over time and how they enact boundary spanning? We explored this research question by adopting routine dynamics perspective in the context of a platform called GitHub. Our data was collected on activities of 95 crypto-currency projects on GitHub over a three-month period (from 7/10/2018 to 7/1/2019) and analysed using narrative networks approach. This study has identified four distinct boundary spanning routines on the GitHub platform: ‘active monitoring’, ‘issue engaging’, ‘intervening other domains’ and ‘permeating boundaries’. |
| Keywords | Boundary Spanning, Platform, Routines, GitHub, Cryptocurrency |
| Year | 2019 |
| Conference | European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) 2019 |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 07 Feb 2019 |
| Web address (URL) of conference proceedings | https://www.egosnet.org/2019_edinburgh/colloquium/sub-themes?subtheme_id=1511424478643&show_prog=yes |