Embedded Relationships: Implications for Networks, Innovation, and Ecosystems

Abstract

In today’s dynamic market environment, no single actor has enough knowledge and sufficient human resources to innovate on a globally competitive level. This trend has accelerated the need for a deeper understanding of relationship management in alliances, virtual corporations, and networks to maximize capacity for innovation. We refer to these structures as service ecosystems and propose a framework for investigating how innovation occurs in service ecosystems. Specifically, we review the conceptualization of relationship as it has evolved from the relationship marketing, service and business-to-business marketing, and service-dominant logic literature. Then, we draw on centrality and embeddedness to explicate how actors in these service ecosystems draw on resources from their extended networks for innovation. We propose an embedded relationships framework for investigating innovation as a dynamic and continuous ecosystem of information seeking and information processing. Future research directions are discussed.