Digital transaction frictions in platform service ecosystems: coordination failures and consumer uncertainty

Purpose This paper aims to conceptualise Digital Transaction Frictions (DTFs) as recurrent, structurally embedded disruptions in platform-mediated service ecosystems and examines how coordination conditions shape consumer uncertainty, transaction-management effort and digital participation through service ecosystem theory and Transformative Service Research. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 40 participants, comprising 28 consumers and 12 organisational experts. Data were analysed through an abductive, Gioia-informed approach. Findings The findings identify three analytical elements: two ecosystem-level conditions, temporal drift and fragmented accountability and one consumer-level process, adaptive uncertainty. Together, these elements suggest how recurring instability in distributed service arrangements may shift uncertainty and transaction-management work onto consumers. Practical implications The findings suggest that platform operators and logistics partners could complement firm-level monitoring with shared diagnostics across the transaction pathway. Customer experience managers could also treat recurring friction as a signal of systemic misalignment rather than an isolated complaint. Originality/value The study positions DTFs as a complementary ecosystem-level construct that links coordination conditions with recurrent transaction instability and its implications for consumer uncertainty, vulnerability and participation, while distinguishing ecosystem conditions that define DTFs from the consumer outcomes they may produce.