Title: Linking business ecosystem lifecycle with platform strategy: a triple view of technology, application and organisation

Authors: Ke Rong; Yong Lin; Yongjiang Shi; Jiang Yu

Addresses: The Business School, Bournemouth University, BH8 8EB, UK ' Business School, University of Greenwich, London, SE10 9LS, UK ' Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, CB3 0FS, UK ' Institute of Policy and Management, China Academy of Science, No. 55, Zhongguancun Donglu, Beijing, 100080, China

Abstract: This paper explores platform strategies along the business ecosystem lifecycle (BELC), based on a multiple-case study. Developing observations on platform strategies from a firm level to a business ecosystem level, the study investigates the issue of platform strategy through three views, respectively technology, application and organisation. As a result, a general evolutional pattern of platform strategy along the BELC is identified, where an open strategy emerges at the birth and expansion phases, then a dominating strategy rises at the authority phase, and finally the opportunistic strategy takes over at the renewal phase. This paper connects the core firms in the business ecosystem with the evolutionary platform strategies.

Keywords: business ecosystems; platform strategy; business ecosystem lifecycle; technology; application; organisation; mobile computing industry; m-computing; open strategy; dominating strategy; opportunistic strategy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2013.053042

International Journal of Technology Management, 2013 Vol.62 No.1, pp.75 - 94

Received: 23 Sep 2011
Accepted: 12 Sep 2012
Published online: 30 May 2013 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article