Running head: TRENDS IN BUSINESS ECOSYSTEMS 1

Case Study #1: Trends in Business Ecosystems

Monica Guzman

Notre Dame de Namur University

July 2, 2017

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Problem Statement

A successful business ecosystem relies heavily on collaboration amongst all participants

within it. This collaboration is referred to as Collaborative Commerce (C-Commerce) and

becomes more essential with the progression of technology and digital businesses. It is necessary

to involve customer feedback to gain competitive advantage and therefore, companies must

ensure strong C-Commerce to help their success as well as the success of their ecosystem.

Challenges & Opportunities

A business ecosystem is a network of organizations within a market and is fueled by both

competition and cooperation (invetopedia.com, 2009). This collaboration is essential for creating

richness within the competitive environment. Although this may seem contradictory, these

factors are necessary since the performance of firms and their products are codependent on the

other firms and products within their business ecosystem (Lansiti et al, 2006).

Determining the health of a business ecosystem is measured by how robust, productive and

innovative the firms and products are (Lansiti et al, 2006). Factors to look for are persisting

environmental changes, market recovery, and return on venture capital/ investment activity. The

latter are most important for a business ecosystem since innovation is a strong indicator of

health.

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Figure 1: Video Game Ecosystem via A New Conceptual Model for Business Ecosystem Visualization and Analysis

Business Solution

Customers expect more as technology evolves, thus creating the need to integrate this

information. According to Heisterberg et al, the incorporation of customer engagement solutions

with the business ecosystem are key for these next-generation businesses. C-Commerce is the

tool which facilitates this information sharing.

This need for collaboration led to Lockheed’s Integration Hub which served to create,

manage, and use shared program/ project/ production data amongst its resources, (Heisterberg et

al, 2014). Since its development in the 1990’s, the Hub has evolved into an essential SaaS

package. Into the 2000’s and even now, manufacturers depend on software packages to

collaborate with customers.

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Lessons Learned/ Business Case

Ecosystem Hubs are a proven approach and is used industry-wide. In the manufacturing

world, companies are seeking the latest and greatest software to increase procurement

productivity. To do so, the software must provide more capabilities to collaborate online with

customers (Boucher Ferguson, 2001). As the digital world progresses, so does the demand for

“real-time” manufacturing. Boucher Ferguson quoted the then Senior IT Global Program

Manager for Flextronics International Ltd, Jim Puzar as saying: “Customers are wanting to be

part of the manufacturing process as they out source. To be able to deliver some Excel sheet a

couple days [after an event] is now becoming unacceptable.”

Why I Care

I work in the manufacturing industry and relate to much of the article written by Boucher

Ferguson. My employer is a contract manufacturer similar to Flextronics International Ltd,

except we do all manufacturing on-shore in our one factory. Domestic manufacturing is

considered a dying industry and since most cannot compete with off-shore prices, our

competitive advantage is speed and customer involvement. We need to keep our customers

informed in a prompt manner, as well as promptly facilitating any customer changes. We heavily

rely on Ecosystem Hubs for this collaboration and just like the companies in the article are

constantly seeking new tools to improve our current productivity and processes.

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References

Baltzan, P. (2015). Business Driven Technology (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill

Education.

Boucher Ferguson, R. (2001). COLLABORATIVE COMMERCE. Eweek, 18(10), 31.

Heisterberg, R., & Verma, A. (2014). Creating Business Agility: How Convergence of Cloud,

Social, Mobile, Video. John Wiley & Sons.

Hupsel Vaz, L. F., Ramos Nogueira, A. R., de Souza Rodrigues, M. A., & de Souza Chimenti, P.

P. (2013). A New Conceptual Model for Business Ecosystem Visualization and Analysis.

RAC - Revista De Administração Contemporânea, 17(1), 1-17.

Lansiti, M., & Richards, G. L. (2006). The information technology ecosystem: Structure, health,

and performance. Antitrust Bulletin, 51(1), 77-110.

Staff, I. (2009, October 02). Business Ecosystem. Retrieved July 09, 2017, from

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/business-ecosystem.asp