Delivering Disruption in an Emergent Access Economy: A Case Study of an E-hailing Platform

The growing adoption of platforms such as Uber and Airbnb has contributed to the emergence of an access economy, which has disrupted a number of incumbent industries in the process. In this study, we examine goCatch, one of Australia’s largest e-hailing and ride-sharing multi-sided platforms. From our investigations, we find that the technology affordances of multi-sided digital platforms can help to deliver new commercial services and offerings to consumers of the platform, which enables new forms of consumption and, subsequently, disrupts the incumbent industry. Our findings provide the empirical premise for a model that illustrates the role of technology in enabling consumer recognition, consumer engagement, and consumer transposition in the e-hailing context. For theory, we build on extant literature to identify the forms of motivational affordances leveraged in disruptive platforms and technologies. For practice, we conceptualize the function of technology-enabled gamification as an emergent strategy that one can use to induce consumers to change their behaviors, develop their technical skills and drive innovation that plays a central role in enabling digital disruption. This study also clarifies the relationship between technology affordances and value creation against the backdrop of the emergent access economy