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Don’t “Just Do It”: On Strategically Creating Digital Ecosystems for Commodity Functionality

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Management of Digital EcoSystems (MEDES 2023)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 2022))

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Abstract

For years, research on software ecosystems has focused on the many opportunities for stakeholders to engage in collaborative innovation and creation of new customer value. With a common platform as the basis, companies co-evolve capabilities around a shared set of technologies, knowledge, and skills, to develop new products and services that would have been difficult for the involved parties to realize internally. Previous studies present key elements for successful innovation ecosystems and strategies for when and how to align with external partners to accelerate innovation while maintaining competitive advantage. However, while research on innovation ecosystems is important for future value creation, research on ecosystems for managing commodity functionality is limited. Although commodity functionality constitutes a large part of existing systems, strategies for how to maintain, manage and evolve this type of functionality are often neglected and not paid as much attention. In this paper, and based on multi- case study research, we present a strategic framework that allows companies to systematically create a fully developed digital ecosystem around commodity functionality. The framework outlines a sequence of strategies starting from outsourcing and moving on to preferred supplier, supplier network and with the final stage being a fully developed ecosystem.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by Software Center, and we would like to thank all case companies involved in this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden

    Helena H. Olsson

  2. Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Jan Bosch

Authors
  1. Helena H. Olsson
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  2. Jan Bosch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Helena H. Olsson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pau & Pays de l'Adour, Anglet, France

    Richard Chbeir

  2. Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, Villeurbanne Cedex, France

    Djamal Benslimane

  3. Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece

    Michalis Zervakis

  4. Open University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Yannis Manolopoulos

  5. Wroclaw University of Science, Wroclaw, Poland

    Ngoc Thanh Ngyuen

  6. Lebanese American University, Byblos, Lebanon

    Joe Tekli

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Olsson, H.H., Bosch, J. (2024). Don’t “Just Do It”: On Strategically Creating Digital Ecosystems for Commodity Functionality. In: Chbeir, R., Benslimane, D., Zervakis, M., Manolopoulos, Y., Ngyuen, N.T., Tekli, J. (eds) Management of Digital EcoSystems. MEDES 2023. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 2022. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51643-6_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51643-6_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-51642-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-51643-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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