Law and the political economy in the business strategies of digital platforms in Brazil

notes for a research agenda

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8966/2025/89210

This paper contributes to a research agenda on the business strategies of digital platforms in
Brazil, the concentration of private economic power in a digital economy, and the challenges
of promoting their regulation and public control. It argues for a political economy approach that recognizes the interdependence and necessary mediation between market and governance dynamics. In addition to articulating different concepts of digital platforms as a political economy phenomenon, this paper presents a literature review on the strategies of technology firms, highlighting the different uses of law and institutions in their expansion and operation. This literature suggests the centrality of the mobilization of legal tools, institutions, and theoretical and normative legal frameworks by public and private actors to implement preferential business models. In a critical dialogue with the literature, we propose an agenda of possible research topics and a set of epistemological guidelines to orient research that is able to take into account the particularities of the Brazilian context.

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Business Strategies; Political Economy.