In the BMBF-funded project inteRKombi, PD Dr. Marc Mölders (project manager) and Benjamin Doubali M.A. are investigating the organizational methods of digital platforms in an industrial environment over a period of four years. While the large, consumer-oriented Internet platforms are an important topic for social science research, platforms by and for industrial companies remain an unknown. The project aims to close this research gap from an organizational and technological sociological perspective.

Supply chain transparency, regulatory requirements, sustainability, increasing investment needs or a shortage of skilled workers: the challenges, requirements and interests that industrial organizations are confronted with are diverse. Re-combination describes the ability of organizations to make these heterogeneous requirements compatible with their own actions and to translate them into concrete action programs and technical applications, for example (Besio/Meyer 2020).

With our research project, we want to use the case of digital platforms to understand how companies and employment shape this process. We are particularly interested in whether platforms in the context of industrial production could be something that helps to cope with different social expectations and requirements.

For the investigation in the first part of the project, we use qualitative empirical social research methods. The main focus is on conducting guideline-based expert interviews. This material is further triangulated with observational data, documents and the analysis of digital applications, infrastructures and interfaces.

With this exploratory research approach, we work on questions that interest us both sociologically and also offer the prospect of practical added value. Compatibility and networking not only concern technical issues, but also many social processes within organizations.

The research results should therefore not only provide sociologically relevant findings, but also help companies and political decision-makers to better understand and shape the complexity of the digital transformation. The aim is to develop recommendations for action or participation formats for corporate and public governance based on the research findings in the second, application-oriented part of the project in order to actively shape the digital transformation.

The project is funded by the BMBF as part of the “Dynamics of digitally networked value creation systems (DynaVer)” funding measure and will run for four years (2024-2028). The project is part of the “Lab Interfacing Organizations”.