Heading the Orchestra of Innovation: How Firms Align Partners in Ecosystems

The ecosystem as a new and distinct organisational form is increasingly replacing the single firm as the unit of analysis and driving the way how firms innovate to the next level. The ultimate purpose of an ecosystem is the realisation of a joint, innovative, value proposition by the partners involved. For that, ecosystem partners need to be aligned towards the value proposition by the orchestrator. In order to do so, orchestrators are using inter-firm structures, the so-called alignment structure. Surprisingly, extant research falls short in showing how firms can use such structural approaches, which motivated our research question on how orchestrators can align the other ecosystem actors towards the joint value proposition by using inter-organisational structures.
Our qualitative multi-case study with ten cases led to three distinct approaches for aligning ecosystem partners by using inter-firm structures. And this yields at least four main contributions: First, we show how ecosystems are structured and governed by illuminating how firms can use different structural approaches to align their partners. Second, we elucidate on how ecosystem orchestrators secure their position within the ecosystem and manage trade-offs between competition and collaboration as well as dependencies. We contribute to an understanding of how flows of knowledge and information are being managed within ecosystems. And, finally, we contribute to an understanding of how such aspects are being managed in a dynamic context over time.