Acquisition of Complementors as a Strategy for Evolving Digital Platform Ecosystems

Staub, Nicola; Haki, Kazem; Aier, Stephan; Winter, Robert; Magan, Adolfo

doi:10.17705/2msqe.00052

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…In other words, focal firms may wish to exert higher influence over those complementors, consequently, they need to adopt a more proactive and even radical way to govern these complements. In our data analysis, we find that for functional complementors whose solutions are more peripheral additions to the focal firms' products could be simply acquired (Milan et al, 2021;Staub et al, 2021). These complementors are usually not rare and relatively affordable for focal firms.…”

Section: Generic Strategies To Manage Complementorsmentioning

confidence: 74%

Managing complementors in innovation ecosystems: a typology for generic strategies

Liang

Luo

Shao

et al. 2022

IMDS

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PurposeInnovation ecosystem research has highlighted complementors as the critical force to determining focal firm innovation’s success in addition to the traditional value chain or supply chain perspective. However, literature is relatively scarce in terms of innovation ecosystem governance, especially, on how to manage various types of complementors. The purpose of this paper is to fill this theoretical gap by developing a typology of managing complementors from multiple case studies.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducted multiple case studies of three leading focal firms with ecosystem strategies to understand innovation ecosystem governance. Theoretical themes are inductively generated to reveal their success in managing complementors in their ecosystems.FindingsThe case analysis reveals four generic strategies to manage complementors. These strategies are contingent on the types of complementors and level of interdependence: focal firms tend to engage functional complementors and collaborate with infrastructural complementors when the level of interdependence is higher, and acquire functional complementors and nurture infrastructural complementors when the level of interdependence is lower.Practical implicationsFor practitioners, this study can improve their understanding on the mechanisms of innovation ecosystem governance, particularly interdependence between participants in an innovation ecosystem, and developing appropriate strategies to manage different types of complementors in innovation ecosystems.Originality/valueThis study contributes to innovation ecosystem literature by enriching the conceptualization of interdependence in innovation ecosystems and unpacking innovation ecosystem governance with the inductively developed holistic typology of strategies to manage complementors. Meanwhile, this study also suggests underlying mechanisms for how innovation ecosystem governance and, therefore, contributes to a systematic theory on understanding innovation ecosystem governance.

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Section: Generic Strategies To Manage Complementorsmentioning

confidence: 74%

Managing complementors in innovation ecosystems: a typology for generic strategies

Liang

Luo

Shao

et al. 2022

IMDS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, health and fitness could arguably be a unifying theme for each organization's platform, hence the notion of platform unitythe degree to which a platform's feature set exhibits one unified theme. The importance of unity in platform operation has been highlighted recentlyalbeit from the perspective of third-party app integration only (Karhu et al, 2020). Staying close to our definition of platform unity, we measured creation unity as the degree to which the platform features created by the provider exhibit one unified theme Digital platform evolution and connection unity as the degree to which the platform's connected features exhibit one unified theme.…”

Section: Summary Of Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Building on the concept of evolution rate (Tiwana, 2015), we observe the rate at which a platform provider creates platform features and the rate at which features are added to a platform via connections to external parties. We also leverage the concept of platform unity (Karhu et al, 2020) the extent to which a platform's feature set evolves with one unified theme. Finally, we emerge two organizational mission constructsconsistency and specificity.…”

Section: Intr 344mentioning

confidence: 99%

Organizational mission and digital platform evolution: an investigation of entrepreneurial organizations in nascent markets

Roberts

Kim

2023

INTR

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PurposeAlthough digital platforms have become important to organizations and society, little is known about how platforms evolve over time. This is particularly true for early-stage platforms provided by entrepreneurial firms competing in nascent markets. This study aims to investigate the relationship between a platform provider's mission and the evolution of its digital platform.Design/methodology/approach This study conducted an exploratory, multi-case study of startups in the emerging health/fitness wearables market over the period 2007 to 2016.FindingsThis study emerged two organizational mission constructs – consistency and specificity – and two evolutionary dynamics of digital platforms – unity and evolution rate. It also considered unity and evolution rate in terms of features created by the platform provider and features connected by external parties. This study found relationships between aspects of mission consistency and platform unity and identified relationships between aspects of mission specificity and platform evolution rates.Originality/valueThis study formalized findings into a set of theoretical propositions, thereby enriching the understanding of the relationship between organizational mission and digital platform evolution in nascent markets. This study provides new constructs and relationships that can be tested and refined in future research.

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“…However, this research is often not applicable to real-world issues of ecosystem managers, too specific or focusing on just very few aspects. For instance, much work has been done on platform ecosystem governance, a topic where academics and practitioners will find plenty of insights (please see Rietveld et al, 2020;Schmeiss et al, 2019;Staub et al, 2021 as some recent examples). However, most ecosystem contributions need to be less generic and abstract to prove insights that could be transferred to industry practice.…”

Section: Why Academic Research On Ecosystems Is Not Sufficiently Answ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Ecosystem Management will Influence Business Model Innovation: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice

Lingens

2023

JBM

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Ecosystems have become one of the “hottest” topics in industry practice and academia and are becoming increasingly important for companies to grasp in their business model innovation activities. However, research and practice are developing along different lines. Hence, this paper aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice and clarify which critical topics in the field of ecosystem management will be crucial for business model innovation in the future. This leads to four key areas that need attention: 1) Organisational change and firm culture as the most significant barriers for ecosystems and, thereby, business model innovation, 2) Portfolio strategies and performance evaluation for ecosystem-based business model innovation, 3) New investment approaches to deal with start-ups that are ecosystem orchestrators 4) Hands-on approaches for the different roles and tasks in an ecosystem. This makes ecosystem thinking an integral part of business model innovation thinking.

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Acquisition of Complementors as a Strategy for Evolving Digital Platform Ecosystems

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Managing complementors in innovation ecosystems: a typology for generic strategies

Managing complementors in innovation ecosystems: a typology for generic strategies

Organizational mission and digital platform evolution: an investigation of entrepreneurial organizations in nascent markets

How Ecosystem Management will Influence Business Model Innovation: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice

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