Managing complementors in innovation ecosystems: a typology for generic strategies
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-12-2021-0809 |
| Published date | 16 June 2022 |
| Date | 16 June 2022 |
| Pages | 2072-2090 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Xingkun Liang,Yining Luo,Xiaolin Shao,Xianwei Shi |
Managing complementors
in innovation ecosystems:
a typology for generic strategies
Xingkun Liang
Department of Information Management, Peking University, Beijing, China
Yining Luo
Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Xiaolin Shao
College of Business, Cangzhou Normal University, Cangzhou, China, and
Xianwei Shi
Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai, China
Abstract
Purpose –Innovation ecosystem research has highlighted complementors as the critical force to determining
focal firm innovation’s success in addition to the traditional value chainor supply chain perspective. However,
literature is relatively scarce in terms of innovation ecosystem governance, especially, on how to manage
various types of complementors. The purpose of this paper is to fill this theoretical gap by developing a
typology of managing complementors from multiple case studies.
Design/methodology/approach –This study conducted multiple case studies of three leading focal firms
with ecosystem strategies to understand innovation ecosystem governance. Theoretical themes are inductively
generated to reveal their success in managing complementors in their ecosystems.
Findings –The case analysis reveals four generic strategies to manage complementors. These strategies are
contingent on the types of complementors and level of interdependence: focal firms tend to engage functional
complementors and collaborate with infrastructural complementors when the level of interdependence is
higher, and acquire functional complementors and nurture infrastructural complementors when the level of
interdependence is lower.
Practical implications –For practitioners, this study can improve their understanding on the mechanisms of
innovation ecosystem governance, particularly interdependence between participants in an innovation ecosystem,
and developing appropriate strategies to manage different types of complementors in innovation ecosystems.
Originality/value –This study contributes to innovation ecosystem literature by enriching the
conceptualization of interdependence in innovation ecosystems and unpacking innovation ecosystem
governance with the inductively developed holistic typology of strategies to manage complementors.
Meanwhile, this study also suggests underlying mechanisms for how innovation ecosystem governance and,
therefore, contributes to a systematic theory on understanding innovation ecosystem governance.
Keywords Innovation ecosystem, Ecosystem governance, Generic strategies, Managing complementors
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In recent years, there has been increasing literature on the innovation ecosystem. In face
of fast-changing market and complex value propositions, firms are increasingly engaged
in ecosystems for organizing sustainable and collaborative innovation (Datt
ee et al., 2018).
IMDS
122,9
2072
The authors would like to thank the guest editor, Professor Yongyi Shou, and two anonymous reviewers for
the highly insightful and constructive comments and suggestions. This work was funded by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 72102144, 72174116 and 71834006), the Humanities and Social
Sciences Project of the Ministry of Education of China (No. 21YJC630114), the Shanghai Pujiang Program
(No. 2020PJC074) and the Shanghai Chenguang Program (No. 20CG17) and China Scholarship Council.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 31 December 2021
Revised 4 April 2022
Accepted 15 April 2022
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 122 No. 9, 2022
pp. 2072-2090
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-12-2021-0809
Since Moore (1993,1996) proposed the concept of the ecosystem in the business landscape,
researchers have contributed to this emerging research area in terms of its conceptual
framework and its impacts on strategy and innovation (Iansiti and Levien, 2004;Adner, 2006,
2012,2017;Jacobides et al., 2018). Among all the conceptual frameworks, Jacobides et al.
(2018) emphasize that at the core of ecosystems lie non-generic complementarities, and Adner
(2006,2012) specifically highlights the strategic importance of complementors in determining
focal firm innovation’s success. Complementors are defined as the ecosystem members who
provide complements that are bundled by the focal firm’s customers, which is distinct from
suppliers that provide upstream components that are bundled by the firm (Adner and
Kapoor, 2010). Further empirical studies have examined that complementors’presence is
crucial for focal firms, in terms of technological investment choices (Kapoor and Lee, 2013)
and technological substitutions (Adner and Kapoor, 2016).
Existing research largely advanced our understanding of what is an innovation
ecosystem and how ecosystem research relates to other established views such as
cooperative strategy and innovation management (Adner and Kapoor, 2010;Adner, 2017;
Jacobides et al., 2018). Different to the traditional strategic network with contractual
arrangements and dyadic governance, the ecosystem is loosely connected and requires a new
mechanism of multilateral governance (Jacobides et al., 2018;Ansari et al., 2016). Although the
importance of ecosystem governance and the roles of complementors in an innovation
ecosystem have been revealed by the extant literature (Adner and Kapoor, 2016;Tiwana,
2013), less is known about how focal firms govern such an innovation ecosystem (Huber et al.,
2017). Specifically, how focal firms should manage their complementors –the distinctive role
of the innovation ecosystem compared to supply chains or value chains –is the central
question in terms of innovation ecosystem governance. Engaging with extant literature
provides us with theoretical foundations for the research and illustrates the gap in related
domains, which helps formulate and elaborate the research question: “how can focal firms
manage complementors in the innovation ecosystem to create competitive advantages?”
In order to answer this research question, we adopted an inductive approach to examining
the rich content and seek to build new understandings from case observations, since
innovation ecosystem governance is rather an emerging topic with many contextual factors.
We aim at addressing the above research question through a qualitative study of three
leading focal firms whose innovation ecosystems’performances are among the best in their
corresponding sectors, with a specific focus on examining how these focal firms manage their
complementors. Our analysis formulates a typology of innovation governance and reveals
four generic strategies to manage complementors. We contribute to innovation ecosystem
literature by enriching the conceptualization of interdependence in innovation ecosystems
and unpacking innovation ecosystem governance with the inductively developed, holistic
typology of managing complementors.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows. A literature review on innovation ecosystem
and its governance comes first. Then a methodology section including case selection, data
collection and data analysis techniques is presented linking back to our research questions.
Case analysis follows to present the linkage between our propositions and case data. Further
discussions are made on how we contribute to the innovation ecosystem literature with the
typology of ecosystem governance. Finally, we conclude the paper with research limitations
and future research opportunities.
Literature review
Innovation ecosystem
The concept of an ecosystem describing business networks where interconnected and
interdependent organizations interact and engage with each other is borrowed from ecological
Generic
strategies to
manage
complementors
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