Selective Coupling: The Action Strategies for Grassroots Actors to Reconcile the Relationship Between Digital Platforms and Bureaucratic Organizations

This article focuses on the relationship between government digital platforms and bureaucratic systems. Adopting a neo-institutionalist perspective, it explores the action strategies employed by grassroots actors to maintain a delicate balance between bureaucratic logic and digital platform logic, effectively exercising embedded agency. On one hand, they leverage bureaucratic logic to enhance the utilization of digital platforms; on the other hand, they strive to preserve the independence of digital platforms. Through selective coupling, which harmonizes the two institutional logics—bureaucracy and platform—the government organization retains its hierarchical governance structure while undergoing transformations in decision-making processes, internal coordination mechanisms, and operational models, ultimately demonstrating greater agility in governance.