E-Commerce: Layered Embeddedness and Hybrid Market Forms

Abstract

This chapter examines how e-commerce platforms in India undergo a fundamental transformation through layered embeddedness, in which global technological architectures selectively couple with local social structures to create stable hybrid market forms. Unlike Western models of disembedded digital capitalism, Indian e-commerce also thrives through social platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, where kinship ties, community networks and cultural practices mediate transactions and build trust. This chapter demonstrates how users actively reconfigure these platforms to align with existing commercial and ritualistic norms, thereby challenging the notions of frictionless digital markets. Institutional intermediaries, such as self-help groups, and India’s regulatory environment further shape platform adoption and architecture, necessitating a multichannel authenticity that blends algorithmic ratings with social verification rituals. This chapter argues that platform viability depends on the selective coupling and decoupling of platform layers (discovery, payments, logistics) with local institutions (kinship, caste networks, self-help groups). This dynamic process generates hybrid market forms that are neither purely traditional nor modern, demonstrating that platforms succeed by aligning with, rather than disembedding from, existing social infrastructures.