Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Publication
    Ecosystem Emergence in the Automotive Supply Chain: Shaping Radical Industry Change in Nested Organizational Fields
    Ecosystems are an increasingly important phenomenon, but we know surprisingly little about the processes and practices underlying ecosystem emergence. This paper aims to provide further insights about how incumbents proactively engage in the creation of ecosystems, by studying in-depth and in real time the transformation of an automotive supplier from a hierarchically organized value chain to an ecosystem. We draw on institutional theory to conceptualize ecosystem emergence as a form of radical institutional change that requires the development of a new institutional logic. Our emerging findings indicate that ecosystem emergence is influenced by (i) multiple nested organizational fields, (ii) sector-wide change templates which create isomorphic pressures across different fields, (iii) an unowned change process whose evolution can be shaped with participative and collaborative strategizing.
  • Publication
    How Incumbent Firms Strategically Transform from Product-Focus to Ecosystem Leadership
    (Universität St. Gallen, 2019)
    The emergence of ecosystems in a sector represents a significant and potentially disruptive challenge for product-focused incumbent firms. The existing literature explains the emergence of new ecosystems mainly as a disruptive process of technological change that challenges the original, product-focused activities. Therefore, we know relatively little about how incumbents prevail when ecosystems profoundly transform entire sectors, but do not replace the product business. I use an in-depth, longitudinal case study of a machine manufacturer to explore how incumbents cope with emerging ecosystem-based competition. I find that the focal incumbent created an ecosystem in a process of continuous change following a logic of continuity, thereby transforming and complementing the original product-focused business. I also show how the focal firm changed over multiple strategic cycles, engaging in in-house solutions and customized orchestration before successfully shifting to an ecosystem logic. My main theoretical contribution is a process model of accumulated learning that highlights historical embeddedness and continuous organizational learning as important, yet under-recognized drivers in ecosystem creation.