TY - JOUR
T1 - A review of the ecosystem concept — Towards coherent ecosystem design
AU - Tsujimoto, Masaharu
AU - Kajikawa, Yuya
AU - Tomita, Junichi
AU - Matsumoto, Yoichi
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 26285079 , 26380507 , 25780244 and by Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX) of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) . Appendix A
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Authors
PY - 2018/11
Y1 - 2018/11
N2 - The ecosystem concept is of increasing significance in the field of the management of technology and innovation. This paper provides an overview of 90 previous studies using the ecosystem concept in this field, all published in leading academic journals, and clarifies their four major research streams. The first stream is the industrial ecology perspective, which is based on the concept of industrial ecosystems. The second is the business ecosystem perspective. This approach is based on the theory of organizational boundaries. Within the business ecosystem perspective, some influential scholars emphasize platform management, which represents the third approach. The fourth approach is the multi-actor network perspective, which contributes dynamic behavioral relationship analyses based on social network theory. This perspective expands the range of analysis to include a variety of actors in addition to private companies. As a result of the review, this study presents an integrated model of the existing literature. Furthermore, this paper proposes original definitions of the ecosystem and the concept of a coherent ecosystem. This coherency is the core concept underlying the explanation of the dynamic evolution or extinction of the ecosystem. Finally, this paper discusses the significance of the ecosystem concept and indicates topics for future research.
AB - The ecosystem concept is of increasing significance in the field of the management of technology and innovation. This paper provides an overview of 90 previous studies using the ecosystem concept in this field, all published in leading academic journals, and clarifies their four major research streams. The first stream is the industrial ecology perspective, which is based on the concept of industrial ecosystems. The second is the business ecosystem perspective. This approach is based on the theory of organizational boundaries. Within the business ecosystem perspective, some influential scholars emphasize platform management, which represents the third approach. The fourth approach is the multi-actor network perspective, which contributes dynamic behavioral relationship analyses based on social network theory. This perspective expands the range of analysis to include a variety of actors in addition to private companies. As a result of the review, this study presents an integrated model of the existing literature. Furthermore, this paper proposes original definitions of the ecosystem and the concept of a coherent ecosystem. This coherency is the core concept underlying the explanation of the dynamic evolution or extinction of the ecosystem. Finally, this paper discusses the significance of the ecosystem concept and indicates topics for future research.
KW - Business ecosystem
KW - Coherent ecosystem
KW - Ecosystem
KW - Multi-level perspective
KW - Platform management
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U2 - 10.1016/j.techfore.2017.06.032
DO - 10.1016/j.techfore.2017.06.032
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85023620022
VL - 136
SP - 49
EP - 58
JO - Technological Forecasting and Social Change
JF - Technological Forecasting and Social Change
SN - 0040-1625
ER -