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.