Orchestrating Platform Ecosystems: The Interplay of Innovation and Business Development Subsystems

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze how to orchestrate platform ecosystems in order to ensure the commercialization of constant flows of innovations. We focus on platform-owners and how they orchestrate the coupling process between the innovation part of the ecosystem and the business development part of the ecosystem. We apply a life-cycle perspective, analyzing how these two subsystems are dynamically aligned through this coupling process. Three emblematic case studies illustrate platform-owners' choices regarding the management of this coupling process. Existing accounts of ecosystem orchestration are quite scarce in the academic literature and do not systematically acknowledge that innovation and business development are subsystems.

Ecosystem orchestration practices for industrial firms: A qualitative meta-analysis, framework development and research agenda

“…However, not every company is capable of performing as an ecosystem orchestrator (Parida et al, 2019). The roles played by ecosystem orchestrators can be divided into market designers and market explorers (Isckia et al, 2020). As market designers, they act as architects of the emerging ecosystem, typically defining complementarity (Lingens, Seeholzer, et al, 2022).…”

“…Ecosystem orchestration presents numerous challenges for orchestrators, predominantly in resource and relationship management. Orchestrators must possess valuable resources, such as unique technology (Gawer & Cusumano, 2014), provide a stable set of common assets (Parida et al, 2019), and align internal and external resources to create new market opportunities (Isckia et al, 2020;Mann et al, 2022;Zeng et al, 2021). They are responsible for orchestrating the flow of resources (Linde et al, 2021).…”

“…Orchestrators need to manage relatively autonomous actors (Ge & Liu, 2022) and address the complexities of dealing simultaneously and temporally with a large and diverse number of partners (Reypens et al, 2021). They also have to integrate the reactions of other actors into their decision-making processes (Isckia et al, 2020). Additionally, the ecosystem orchestrator must safeguard not only its internal reconfiguring activities but also those of the ecosystem partners (Leten et al,1 In the study of ecosystems, it is important to distinguish between similar but distinct concepts like ecosystem governance, coordination, and orchestration.…”

Value creation in the 4IR

“…The extent of these interactions within and between components of digital MSPs is rising exponentially as a result of the merger of 4IR technologies and social interaction (Ardolino et al 2020). The components of digital MSP are dynamically aligned through the process of coupling (Isckia, De Reuver & Lescop 2020), resulting from interactions.…”

“…By contrast, an indirect (cross-side) network effect is enabled when more users on one side and complementary producers on the other side are attracted to a MSP as a result of the interaction taking place on the platform (OECD 2018) --for example, when millennials on one side of a platform benefit from interactions with advertisers on the other side, and vice versa. Another way of expressing an indirect network effect is to consider it as a situation where the actions or behaviour of key actors on both sides of the platform either have a positive or negative effect on each of the sides (Isckia, De Reuver & Lescop 2020).…”