Exploring the ecosystem edge : exploration propensity and effects of collaboration across ecosystem types

Despite the wide proliferation of ecosystems research in recent years, smoke still surrounds this emerging paradigm. While there is agreement on the theoretical premises underlying ecosystems as a distinct form of organizing economic activities, fundamentally departing from the Chandlerian firm and other interorganizational governance modes, there is confusion as to what ecosystem types these premises bring about.
Paralleling this ambiguity, research to date provides a limited perspective on the mechanisms at play in exploration undertaken by ecosystems and the role of collaboration in this context – surprisingly so, given the centrality of both collaboration and exploration-based innovation to the very existence of ecosystems. So, how do ecosystem premises impact ecosystem types? And why are some types more prone to engage in ecosystem-level exploration than others?
This dissertation addresses these questions. In doing so, it enriches our understanding of ecosystems by integrating complexity theory and TCE dominant to the logic of the key ecosystem premises, bringing forward a typology of ecosystems rooted in the strength of interdependencies and complementarities. Moreover, I propose a theory on how relationships among these constructs explain the ability and incentive to engage in ecosystem-level exploration as mediated and moderated by collaboration-related byproducts (hierarchical controls, appropriation hazards, coordination costs) across ecosystem types. Due to the resulting ecosystem edge that, counterintuitively, the less paradigmatic ecosystem types enjoy, this is an important realm of ecosystem properties underexplored thus far, yet with significant theoretical and managerial implications.

Despite the wide proliferation of ecosystems research in recent years, smoke still surrounds this emerging paradigm. While there is agreement on the theoretical premises underlying ecosystems as a distinct form of organizing economic activities, fundamentally departing from the Chandlerian firm and other interorganizational governance modes, there is confusion as to what ecosystem types these premises bring about.
Paralleling this ambiguity, research to date provides a limited perspective on the mechanisms at play in exploration undertaken by ecosystems and the role of collaboration in this context – surprisingly so, given the centrality of both collaboration and exploration-based innovation to the very existence of ecosystems. So, how do ecosystem premises impact ecosystem types? And why are some types more prone to engage in ecosystem-level exploration than others?
This dissertation addresses these questions. In doing so, it enriches our understanding of ecosystems by integrating complexity theory and TCE dominant to the logic of the key ecosystem premises, bringing forward a typology of ecosystems rooted in the strength of interdependencies and complementarities. Moreover, I propose a theory on how relationships among these constructs explain the ability and incentive to engage in ecosystem-level exploration as mediated and moderated by collaboration-related byproducts (hierarchical controls, appropriation hazards, coordination costs) across ecosystem types. Due to the resulting ecosystem edge that, counterintuitively, the less paradigmatic ecosystem types enjoy, this is an important realm of ecosystem properties underexplored thus far, yet with significant theoretical and managerial implications.