TY - JOUR
T1 - From Product Platform Ecosystem to Innovation Platform Ecosystem
T2 - An Institutional Perspective on the Governance of Ecosystem Transformations
AU - Schreieck, Maximilian
AU - Wiesche, Manuel
AU - Krcmar, Helmut
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Incumbent companies across industries such as banking, insurance, and enterprise software have begun transforming their existing product platform ecosystems into innovation platforms ecosystems to increase generativity in their ecosystems. Such ecosystem transformations not only entail technological challenges as the underlying platform technology changes but also organizational challenges in that ecosystem actors such as partners and customers need to become part of the transformed ecosystem. To study how incumbent companies can govern ecosystem transformations successfully, we interpret ecosystems as organizational fields and ecosystem transformations as changes to the fields’ institutional infrastructure. Based on a multiyear, grounded theory study of the transformation of SAP’s on-premises ERP system, we first identify institutionalization challenges that arise when institutional infrastructure is changed during an ecosystem transformation. We then show how field-level governance mechanisms address these challenges and how the new institutional infrastructure gains legitimacy among ecosystem actors, ultimately leading to the institutionalization of the transformed ecosystem. These findings contribute to the literature on ecosystem transformations and platform governance by highlighting the role that institutional forces play in ecosystem transformations. Furthermore, we add to the literature on institutional theory by providing insights into the dynamics of institutional infrastructure as it becomes infused with digital technologies.
AB - Incumbent companies across industries such as banking, insurance, and enterprise software have begun transforming their existing product platform ecosystems into innovation platforms ecosystems to increase generativity in their ecosystems. Such ecosystem transformations not only entail technological challenges as the underlying platform technology changes but also organizational challenges in that ecosystem actors such as partners and customers need to become part of the transformed ecosystem. To study how incumbent companies can govern ecosystem transformations successfully, we interpret ecosystems as organizational fields and ecosystem transformations as changes to the fields’ institutional infrastructure. Based on a multiyear, grounded theory study of the transformation of SAP’s on-premises ERP system, we first identify institutionalization challenges that arise when institutional infrastructure is changed during an ecosystem transformation. We then show how field-level governance mechanisms address these challenges and how the new institutional infrastructure gains legitimacy among ecosystem actors, ultimately leading to the institutionalization of the transformed ecosystem. These findings contribute to the literature on ecosystem transformations and platform governance by highlighting the role that institutional forces play in ecosystem transformations. Furthermore, we add to the literature on institutional theory by providing insights into the dynamics of institutional infrastructure as it becomes infused with digital technologies.
KW - Digital Platform
KW - Ecosystem Transformation
KW - Enterprise Software
KW - Grounded Theory Methodology
KW - Innovation Platform
KW - Institutional Theory
KW - Platform Governance
KW - Product Platform
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85141074514&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.17705/1jais.00764
DO - 10.17705/1jais.00764
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85141074514
SN - 1558-3457
VL - 23
SP - 1354
EP - 1385
JO - Journal of the Association for Information Systems
JF - Journal of the Association for Information Systems
IS - 6
M1 - 9
ER -