An Organization-as-Platform and a Strategy-as-Practice for an Electronically Supported Booking Service in Healthcare

In Chapter 6, Resca starts from the consideration, suggested in the organizational and management literature, that bureaucratic structures have failed to manage businesses in turbulent markets or those that are subject to rapid technological innovation. Drawing from the case of the introduction of the first e-booking centres to access secondary care in Bologna in the late 1980s and early 1990s, this chapter proposes the concept of platform organization as a meta-organization able to deal with these changing markets. The author suggests that, although the platform organization concept offers a macro perspective, it falls short of shedding light on micro aspects related to such endeavours as the introduction of e-booking centres. Strategy-as-practice (or strategizing) is introduced to outline a model that includes both the macro and micro level.