Competitive Advantage Strategies in Industrial Marketing : Using an Ecosystem Approach

Abstract: Intensified competitive pressures related to a dynamic and hypercompetitive global economy, technological advances, unpredictable customers and competitors, and blurring industry boundaries, have compelled industrial marketers to reconsider the strategic imperatives of the organization, in relation to the competitive context in which it operates. As it becomes increasingly difficult for individual firms to identify and respond to external competitive challenges and changes independently, new organizational perspectives have been proposed to thrive in the presence of these forces. The metaphor of the ‘ecosystem’ has increasingly been used in research and practice to highlight the interdependencies between organizations and their environment, providing a renewed way of thinking about the co-evolution, collaboration and creation of value between actors. Although industrial marketers’ knowledge of ecosystems is rapidly developing, the field is still unfolding and relatively little is known about the differences between these ecosystems, especially from a competitive advantage perspective.To deepen our understanding of its value from an industrial marketing point of view, the current research sought to create conceptual and terminological clarity regarding the ecosystem concept and examine the competitive dynamics present within and between these ecosystems. The central research problem guiding this research is: How is competitive advantage achieved through an ecosystem approach in industrial marketing? Contemporary strategy literature converging at the crossroads between organizational evolution and a fast-changing competitive landscape, proposes that relationships and the resources and capabilities embedded within these relationships are key to the attainment of competitive advantage. As such, theoretical streams that incorporate this line of thought are used as lenses through which to assess competitive advantage. The following research questions emerged:RQ1: What are the drivers of competitive advantage through a network analysis approach to ecosystems?RQ2: How does social capital impact the competitive advantage of ecosystems?RQ3: How do dynamic capabilities impact the competitive advantage of ecosystems?RQ4: How do resource- and capability-based theories explain competition in ecosystems?Four papers were constructed as part of the empirical part of this research. Two papers assessed competition and competitiveness within ecosystems, with the other two examining competitive advantage between ecosystems. Two of the papers followed a quantitative descriptive approach, one paper followed a quantitative exploratory approach, while a qualitative exploratory approach was utilized in the fourth paper. The respective approaches were deemed best suited to address the respective research questions. The research contributes to the body of knowledge in that it highlights the centrality of knowledge exploration in leveraging, maintaining and attaining advantage. It also points to a cyclical knowledge-generating process within the ecosystem context, which centers on exploring, then exploiting and finally, transforming of knowledge for sustainable competitive advantage. The dissertation follows a narrative of first sketching the relevance of the ecosystem metaphor within the industrial marketing context, leading to the identification of gaps in the research and an introduction to the research problem. The evolution of the ecosystem concept is then reviewed, laying bare its characteristics, extant definitions and different types of ecosystems. Theoretical perspectives of strategy, inherently embedded in theoretical assumptions of how competition works, are then discussed. The research questions are then introduced, including the respective papers addressing each research question, together with the research methodology followed. The dissertation concludes with a summary of the findings, which also provides a discussion on the research contributions, managerial implications, noted limitations and suggested areas for future research. The four papers are presented as Appendices, of which three have been published and the fourth is in its second round of review.