Our paper “Mind the “GaaP” – Solution Traps in Crisis Response Applications” with Zoya Katashinskaya and Gianluca Miscione has been accepted to the Academy of Management (AOM) Conference!

What’s taken for granted becomes visible when it breaks. Crises often reveal the solution trap – a tangle of overlapping solutions from different origins that block effective outcomes, especially under pressure.

We argue that a Government as a Platform approach can reduce these traps and strengthen crisis resilience.

We build on existing literature and our empirical analysis of the Ukrainian refugee crisis to extend the notion of the solution trap, identifying causes like competing solutions, technical debt, opportunity costs, and unintended consequences.

We conclude with a call to rethink how platform-based coordination can help governments respond better in times of crisis.

Meet Zoya Katashinskaya in Copenhagen to chat about the study!