Addressing Voids: How Digital Start-ups in Kenya Create Market Infrastructure

Abstract The chapter introduces market-enabling digital platforms as a new concept. By using a market structure framework that puts emphasis on salient market inefficiencies—also known as institutional voids—we find that digital platforms in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres have contributed significantly to the development of efficient market infrastructures and intermediaries. We review market-enabling digital platforms in Kenya elicited from previous research on digital entrepreneurship ecosystems, finding examples where Kenyan digital start-ups have achieved success by tackling institutional voids in the marketplace. The framework itself has significant value as a paradigm for explaining a theory of change about how start-ups can create or enhance market infrastructure through providing digital—rather than physical—infrastructure. The chapter also provides a new lens to help understand, conceptualize, and assess start-ups’ potential for contributing to market efficiency and economic vitality.