Article: How complementors deal with complement challenges: a comparative study of ports in the wind energy ecosystem Journal: International Journal of Technology Management (IJTM) 2024 Vol.96 No.1/2/3 pp.159 - 191 Abstract: Complementors enhance the value of the ecosystem's core proposition; however, their complement challenges may evolve into bottlenecks, disrupting the entire ecosystem and threatening its health and development. Considering their ecosystem-level effects, complement challenges have been researched mainly from the focal firm's perspective. However, this study considers the complementors' vantage points to explore their approaches to dealing with complement challenges. We rely on the insights of two ports in Denmark and China, which act as complementors in the offshore wind energy ecosystem. Depending on the complexity of complement challenges and their willingness to comply, complementors rely on several approaches, i.e., compliant collaboration, sub-ecosystem building, alignment pursuance, developing an ecosystem perspective, and position leveraging. Although being collaborative and even building a sub-ecosystem seem natural for port-complementors, other approaches fall outside the normal pattern of complementors' value-adding role. This study contributes to expanding complementors' views of the management of complement challenges in ecosystems. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: How complementors deal with complement challenges: a comparative study of ports in the wind energy ecosystem

Authors: Alexandra Elena Carst; Ping Lv

Addresses: Aalborg University Business School, Aalborg University, Fibigerstraede 11, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark; Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 101400, China ' School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

Abstract: Complementors enhance the value of the ecosystem's core proposition; however, their complement challenges may evolve into bottlenecks, disrupting the entire ecosystem and threatening its health and development. Considering their ecosystem-level effects, complement challenges have been researched mainly from the focal firm's perspective. However, this study considers the complementors' vantage points to explore their approaches to dealing with complement challenges. We rely on the insights of two ports in Denmark and China, which act as complementors in the offshore wind energy ecosystem. Depending on the complexity of complement challenges and their willingness to comply, complementors rely on several approaches, i.e., compliant collaboration, sub-ecosystem building, alignment pursuance, developing an ecosystem perspective, and position leveraging. Although being collaborative and even building a sub-ecosystem seem natural for port-complementors, other approaches fall outside the normal pattern of complementors' value-adding role. This study contributes to expanding complementors' views of the management of complement challenges in ecosystems.

Keywords: complementors; complement challenges; innovation ecosystems; bottlenecks; ecosystem alignment; position leveraging; comparative study; wind energy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2024.140258

International Journal of Technology Management, 2024 Vol.96 No.1/2/3, pp.159 - 191

Received: 06 Jul 2022
Accepted: 07 Mar 2023
Published online: 01 Aug 2024 *

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Title: How complementors deal with complement challenges: a comparative study of ports in the wind energy ecosystem

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