Towards an Attention-based view of the Ecosystem: How Firms Shape Organizational Structures among Ecosystem Actors

The ecosystems concept is on the rise in both research and industry practice alike. Prospectively, they will change the way decision-makers deal with key managerial aspects such as strategy, innovation, organisation and competition. Within ecosystems, distribution of attention is crucial, since all ecosystem partners involved are pursuing their individual agendas and it is the core duty of the orchestrator to align these in order for the joint value proposition to come true. Since attention is distributed via organisational structures, more specifically the so-called procedural and communication channels, it is key to understand how firms shape such channels not just within their firm but also towards the partners involved in the ecosystem. In an attempt to shed light on this context, this paper applies a qualitative study with eight cases and, based on the attention-based view of the firm, contributes to research on ecosystems in several ways. First, and foremost, we show three different types of procedural and communication channels, thus providing a better understanding of how ecosystems are structured and governed. Second, we shed light on the explicit design of these procedural and communication channels by the orchestrator in order to shape the attention of the ecosystem partners. Third, our findings provide a more differentiated view on the role and function of orchestrators. Fourth, in so doing, we specify the requirements under certain contingencies for the orchestrator.