The Relational Edge::Arbitrage as a Key Capability in Platform Organisations

Governments face pressure to solve complex problems with limited resources, leading to a shift towards more distributed and participatory governance. While innovative collaborations are gaining traction, scaling these efforts remains challenging due to the resource demands of local partnerships. To address this, some advocate for the use of 'collaborative platforms' to support multiple co-creation efforts through design rules and modularity, intermediation, and resourcing. Mainstreaming these platforms could enable governments to meet overarching policy objectives and better engage communities in public services. However, how platform organizations can balance multiple aims, including enabling local co-creation and higher-level objectives, is less clear. We conducted a longitudinal case study that explores a network of co-creation initiatives bound by a collaborative platform. We introduce the concept of “relational arbitrage,” a capability important for platform organizations to be able to balance multi-level aims and suggest that collaborative platforms are not neutral moderators of policy objectives.