Orchestrating Platform Ecosystems: The Interplay of Innovation and Business Development Subsystems

In this paper, we analyze how to orchestrate platform ecosystems in order to ensure the commercialization of constant flows of innovations. We focus on platform-owners and how they orchestrate the coupling process between the innovation part of the ecosystem and the business development part of the ecosystem. We apply a life-cycle perspective, analyzing how these two subsystems are dynamically aligned through this coupling process. Three emblematic case studies illustrate platform-owners’ choices regarding the management of this coupling process. Existing accounts of ecosystem orchestration are quite scarce in the academic literature and do not systematically acknowledge that innovation and business development are subsystems. By considering the two parts of ecosystems, our paper contributes to a more fine-grained understanding of platform ecosystem orchestration.JEL Code: L190