Situational co-evolution: contextualizing state-platform relations in emerging-market China

Abstract Prevailing analyses of platform capitalism emphasize firms’ disruptive power over state regulation and public institutions. This article offers a different perspective by examining how the platform and state co-evolve within contexts of institutional informality. Drawing on an in-depth case study of RoadMap, a digital freight platform in China, it theorizes situational co-evolution—a contingent, interest-aligned collaboration through which state capacity and corporate power are mutually reinforced. Three mechanisms drive this process: (1) the alignment of interests around solving governance challenges; (2) constructive regulatory entrepreneurship, whereby the firm enhances state regulation while expanding its own influence; and (3) the mutual reinforcement of infrastructural power, as digital infrastructures serve as instruments of both governance and accumulation. By shifting focus to an emerging-market context, this study reveals how digitalization in the Global South reconfigures the boundaries between market innovation and state governance, enriching the comparative understanding of platform capitalism.