Description
Over the past three decades, the concept of the business ecosystem has transformed strategic thinking. As a hybrid between markets and hierarchies, it complements traditional industry and value chain perspectives by emphasizing collaboration, co-innovation, aligning investments, and the co-evolution of multiple organizations. Today, firms increasingly compete as part of ecosystems rather than as standalone enterprises. This creates new management challenges: orchestrating diverse partners, balancing openness with control, and sustaining long-term ecosystem health while creating and capturing value.
De Gruyter Handbook on Business Ecosystems combines a concise overview of the evolution of ecosystem thinking-from Moore's pioneering work to recent advances in ecosystem governance, architecture, the role of artificial intelligence, and resilience-with practical insights into how ecosystems can be designed, managed, and led. Bringing together leading academics and experienced practitioners, the chapters are organized around four themes: ecosystem typologies, governance, ecosystem creation and evolution, and ecosystem management and leadership. By combining rigorous research with practical experience, this book provides an essential resource for both managers seeking to build and orchestrate ecosystems and scholars advancing the field.
Arnoud De Meyer is Professor Emeritus and former President of Singapore Management University. He is an alumnus of the Vlerick Business School, taught and had several leadership roles at INSEAD, and was the Director of the Cambridge Judge Business School. He is an internationally recognised and widely published scholar in R&D and Innovation Management, Manufacturing Strategy, and International Management. He published more than 100 articles and case studies and co-authored 12 books. Currently he is the Chair of the Temasek sponsored Stewardship Asia Center (Singapore), member of Hong Kong's University Grants Committee, and independent director of Viva Energy Australia (Melbourne), Banyan Tree Resorts and Hotels (Singapore), and upGrad (Mumbai, India).
Peter J. Williamson is Professor of International Management at the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School, and a Fellow of Jesus College. Peter earned his PhD in Business Economics at Harvard University and has held professorships at London Business School, Harvard Business School and INSEAD (in Fontainebleau and Singapore). He has served as non-executive director of companies in industries spanning whisky to green energy and software. His is an author of ten books including: The Competitive Advantage of Emerging Market Multinationals; Dragons at Your Door; Winning in Asia; and From Global to Metanational. His more than 70 other articles have been published in leading academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, and Journal of Industrial Economics, and Journal of International Business Studies as well as managerial outlets including the MIT-Sloan Management Review and the Harvard Business Review.
