Recently, OUC’s research paper titled “The Motivation and Impact of the Rise of Government-Created Platform Enterprises Under the Transformation of Public Service Platformization” has been published in the fourth issue of Journal of Management World (2025), a top-tier journal in the field of management studies. Xu Yaqian, lecturer from the School of International Affairs and Public Administration, is the corresponding author of the paper.

The emergence of government-created platform enterprises has fundamentally reshaped the structure and operation of public services. Despite their growing prominence in China’s digital public service landscape and even globally, research into this new organization form remains limited.

With a focus on provincial-level platform companies established under China’s digital government initiatives, the study drew on extensive fieldwork conducted across various government departments and provincial platform enterprises nationwide. It systematically analyzed the driving forces behind the emergence of government-created platform enterprises and their impacts within the Chinese context. The research indicates that the creation of such enterprises originates from the government’s efforts to build centralized and controllable platform power and governance structures, as well as from the need to address the dilemma of asymmetric information in matching demand between the government and platform enterprises. In the era of digital intelligence, rising public expectations for the government to respond to complex needs in a sustainable and systematic manner have also catalyzed the development of this organizational form.

Further analysis reveals that at the provincial level, these enterprises are vigorously advancing the integration of data platforms and standard specifications. The model of state-owned, provincially coordinated platforms has facilitated the platformization and ecosystem development of digital public services, enhancing equalization and universal accessibility of public services at the provincial level. However, the “corporatized and platformized domains” indirectly created by them also impacts the autonomy of the primary-level government while promoting the equalization of public services.

This study has developed a novel theory of “public service corporatization/platformization”. It offers theoretical references and practical guidance for promoting the platform-based transformation of public service in the digital age and better integration of an effective market and a capable government in the public service sector.