Günter Müller-Stewens

Supplement to the special issue on "Business Ecosystems" in the journal "Die Unternehmung" (4/2019)

Business ecosystems are currently transforming many established sectors. Understanding how ecosystems emerge and influence strategic outcomes is thus an important concern for academics and managers of incumbent firms alike. Ecosystems result from configuration processes where an ecosystem leader aligns multiple independent but complementary organizations to offer an integrated solution to meet a specific and often complex customer need. In this review, we analyze empirical research on the processes and outcomes of ecosystem emergence. We structure our findings along three analytical levels, highlighting the changes that ecosystems engender in competitive dynamics, the inter-organizational relationships, and the required internal organization of the participating firms. Ecosystem participants, leaders and complementors have to navigate the creation phase dynamically and then develop the strategic activities suited to their eventual role in the ecosystem.

Nowadays, diversified companies or business groups are the norm rather than the exception. Most multibusiness or multi-unit firms are organised as a multidivisional firm (M-form firms). They are structured into semi-autonomous divisions or operating units that report to a corporate headquarters (CHQ) to guide, control and coordinate the group. There are many different ways to manage the role of such a corporate center. Also, over the past decades, these roles had to change, owing to the changing requirements from the business environment and new approaches to managing the roles.