EcoGame and Ecosystem Profiler : solutions for business ecosystem management

Abstract

Business ecosystems are complex dynamic systems that are yet to be profoundly studied. As interconnectedness between companies and organisations increases, there is a need to improve the understanding of the dynamics involved in business ecosystems, and conventional research methods are not able to capture everything. Therefore, new solutions are required for both studying the nature of business ecosystems and aiding practitioners in managing them. The nature of business ecosystems consists of static and dynamic parts. Static nature is a presentation of the structure of the ecosystem and its actors in a single point in time. Dynamic nature considers the co-evolution of the ecosystem and its actors through their co-creation activities.

This thesis presents EcoGame and Ecosystem Profiler: two solutions that are used to solve problems in the field related to collaboration in multilateral relationships, and understanding of the structure of the ecosystem companies take part in. These topics fall under ecosystem patterning and management. The emphasis on Ecosystem Profiler is to create a static profile showing the ecosystem value proposition, relevant actors, their connections and positions, and relevant individual company information. EcoGame simulates collaborative decision-making processes in the multilateral relationships of real business ecosystems. Through gameplay, EcoGame gathers data on the dynamics related to collaborative relationships within ecosystems. The joint use of the solutions aims at studying and improving the performance of ecosystems by incorporating a created ecosystem profile within EcoGame for the ecosystem actors to play.

To create the solutions, this thesis adopts the Design Science Research (DSR) approach. The solutions draw inspiration from existing solutions used in other fields. The created solutions are tested and proven in a context but the final phase of DSR, evaluation and validation of the solutions as individual and jointly used generalised DSR artefacts, is done in further research. DSR allows the utilisation of a variety of research methods throughout its multi-phase cyclical process adopted in this thesis. Relevant research results can emerge from each phase and cycle while the overall process of improving the designs towards validation continues.

The main contributions of this thesis are the two DSR solution artefacts, EcoGame and Ecosystem Profiler. Through the use of the solutions, this thesis contributes to the knowledge bases of each solution, mainly consisting of literature on ecosystem management, and specifically collaborative decision-making in multilateral relationships. Managerially, they contribute to making the ecosystem structure understandable and building or improving collaboration within ecosystems. Wider contributions to ecosystem patterning and performance comes as the solutions are individually and jointly validated in further research. This thesis answers the call to create understanding on the dynamics involved in business ecosystems in addition to the understanding of the static structure that previous research has concentrated on.