This paper empirically investigates the process by which a digital infrastructure evolved and took the architectural form of a digital platform as a core-periphery structure over a 20-year pe-riod. Our study pays special attention to the developmental dependencies of the components of the infrastructure’s installed base and how the interdependencies between the platform core and periphery evolve over time. We use the notion of “generative entrenchment” to provide an ac-count of the formation and unfolding of a core-periphery structure from an evolving digital in-frastructure that highlights three aspects of the process. First, the process of architectural evolu-tion that our study depicts, comprises three phases showing a gradual reversal of the entrench-ment relationship of the platform core and periphery: 1) Entrenchment of the periphery; 2) Mu-tual entrenchment of the core and periphery; and 3) Entrenchment of the core. Second, we show how the generatively entrenched infrastructure’s installed base shaped the decisions and choices regarding the initial platform core. Third, we identify three architectural practices (creating re-dundancy in the core; augmenting the core with novelty; and reducing the heterogeneity of an entrenched peripherical component and later integrating it into the core) that weakened the en-trenchment of the peripherical components, amplified the role of the core, and consolidated the core-periphery structure.

本文以经验为基础，研究了数字基础架构的发展过程，并在20年的时间里采用了数字平台的体系结构形式作为核心外围结构。我们的研究特别关注基础设施安装基础组件的开发依存关系，以及平台核心与外围设备之间的依存关系如何随时间演变。我们使用“生成式固定”的概念来说明核心外围结构从不断发展的数字基础架构中的形成和展开，该数字基础架构突出了该过程的三个方面。首先，我们的研究描述的建筑发展过程包括三个阶段，显示了平台核心与外围的牢固关系的逐渐逆转：1）外围的增强；2）核心和外围的相互固定；3）加强核心。其次，我们展示了根深蒂固的基础架构的安装基础如何影响有关初始平台核心的决策和选择。第三，我们确定了三种架构实践（弱化了外围组件的束缚）（在内核中创建冗余，在内核中增加了新颖性，以及减少了根深蒂固的外围组件的异质性，然后将其集成到内核中），扩大核心作用，巩固核心外围结构。