How do firms meet the challenge of technological change by redesigning innovation ecosystem A case study of IBM

Abstract

An innovation ecosystem can add competitive advantages to focal firms and help them win the market with their partners. However, the ecosystem needs to evolve as the environment changes. There are few studies focusing on how the architecture of innovation ecosystem evolves and how firms accomplish this evolution through appropriate strategies of leveraging complementors. The main purpose of this study is to explore the evolutionary process of ecosystem under both radical and incremental technological changes based on a single case study and a patent analysis of IBM. From the innovation ecosystem perspective, we find that the ecosystem architecture is becoming more complicated when transforming from a single-hub to a multi-hub form via sharing patents of IBM. We also find that IBM has advanced its ecosystem as well as leveraged complementary technologies mainly by technological collaboration, mergers and acquisition (M&A), but the emphases of leverage strategies are varying along with distinct technological changes. Moreover, IBM would help the complementors co-evolve with the developing ecosystem. This study is expected to contribute to the literature of strategy and innovation ecosystem and provide firms with implicating guidance to survive and grow in a time of technology turbulence.