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International Conference of Software Business

ICSOB 2016: Software Business pp 32–46Cite as

Ecosystems Here, There, and Everywhere

A Barometrical Analysis of the Roots of ‘Software Ecosystem’

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 240))

Abstract

This study structures the ecosystem literature by using a bibliometrical approach in analysing theoretical roots of ecosystem studies. Several disciplines, such as innovation, management and software studies have established own streams in the ecosystem research. This paper reports the results of analysing 601 articles from the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database, and identifies ten separate research communities which have established their own thematic ecosystem disciplines. We show that five sub-communities have emerged inside the field of software ecosystems. The software ecosystem literature draws its theoretical background from (1) technical, (2) research methodology, (3) business, (4) management, and (5) strategy oriented disciplines. The results pave the way for future research by illustrating the existing and missing links and directions in the field of the software ecosystem.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Kirkpatrick, D. Now Every Company Is A Software Company. http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2011/11/30/now-every-company-is-a-software-company/#1505e9a21100.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Innovations, Economy, and Policy, Espoo, Finland

    Arho Suominen

  2. Department of Information Technology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Sami Hyrynsalmi

  3. Department of Pori, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland

    Marko Seppänen

Authors
  1. Arho Suominen
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  2. Sami Hyrynsalmi
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  3. Marko Seppänen
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Correspondence to Arho Suominen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Andrey Maglyas

  2. University of Limerick, Lero-The Irish Software Research Centre, Limerick, Ireland

    Anna-Lena Lamprecht

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Suominen, A., Hyrynsalmi, S., Seppänen, M. (2016). Ecosystems Here, There, and Everywhere. In: Maglyas, A., Lamprecht, AL. (eds) Software Business. ICSOB 2016. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 240. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40515-5_3

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