Effects of Disruptive Innovations on Value Processes in Business Ecosystems
Welin, Emmi (2019)
2019
Tuotantotalous
Tekniikan ja luonnontieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2019-01-30
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201901251175
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201901251175
Tiivistelmä
Disruptive innovations are a well-known but often poorly managed topic among both researchers and commercial companies. These innovations tend to disrupt whole industries and lead many firms to failures. When it comes to blockchains and distributed ledgers, many experts believe that these technologies have the potential to disrupt industries the same way the internet did. However, this time the disruption will not happen in the context of single organizations, since distributed technologies steer companies to work in business ecosystems. The problem is that the effects of these technologies on these networks of interrelated actors are mostly unknown. Because of the significant value proposition related to distributed solutions, firms want to understand the effects of these disruptive innovations in order to benefit from them.
This master’s thesis studies the effects of disruptive innovations on value processes in business ecosystems. The aim of this study is to find out how these innovations affect value creation, delivery and capture, and how these ecosystems should be built and managed. These objectives were addressed by developing a framework for studying ecosystem roles in detail. The empirical study tested the assumptions of the framework by interviewing organizations in the finance industry, which could possibly establish a distributed ledger based ecosystem together. This provided a way to validate and deepen the understanding regarding ecosystem roles in the context of disruptive innovations. As a result, the researcher was able to define differences and similarities between roles, which led to find the answers to the research questions.
The findings of this study imply that disruptive innovations have various effects on value processes in business ecosystems. Value creation requires understanding of the needs of potential customers, value delivery trust and cooperation, and value capture clear roles, responsibilities and common rules. The ecosystem also needs a neutral and capable leader to manage the uncertainty, engage right actors and allocate enough resources to the network. This is especially important in the chaotic building phase. Furthermore, this study contributed to the existing research by justifying the categorization of ecosystem roles into developers and users. Thus, the framework of this study provides many opportunities to enhance the understanding related to ecosystems’ roles and structures especially in the disruptive context in the future, too.
This master’s thesis studies the effects of disruptive innovations on value processes in business ecosystems. The aim of this study is to find out how these innovations affect value creation, delivery and capture, and how these ecosystems should be built and managed. These objectives were addressed by developing a framework for studying ecosystem roles in detail. The empirical study tested the assumptions of the framework by interviewing organizations in the finance industry, which could possibly establish a distributed ledger based ecosystem together. This provided a way to validate and deepen the understanding regarding ecosystem roles in the context of disruptive innovations. As a result, the researcher was able to define differences and similarities between roles, which led to find the answers to the research questions.
The findings of this study imply that disruptive innovations have various effects on value processes in business ecosystems. Value creation requires understanding of the needs of potential customers, value delivery trust and cooperation, and value capture clear roles, responsibilities and common rules. The ecosystem also needs a neutral and capable leader to manage the uncertainty, engage right actors and allocate enough resources to the network. This is especially important in the chaotic building phase. Furthermore, this study contributed to the existing research by justifying the categorization of ecosystem roles into developers and users. Thus, the framework of this study provides many opportunities to enhance the understanding related to ecosystems’ roles and structures especially in the disruptive context in the future, too.