Matters of economic ecosystem classification

Abstract

Economic convergence and digitalization are the most important trends of the modern community development. It is their interaction that creates new opportunities for the improvement of competitive capability and performance in the framework of joint business conducted by representatives of the wide variety of segments and sectors of economy. In response to digitalization, an ecosystem becomes the main institutional and organizational form of business in the framework of inter-sectoral economic convergence. The purpose of this article is to define more exactly the concept of an ecosystem as a form of doing joint business in the environment of inter-sectoral economic convergence and digitalization, and to build a classification of ecosystems. The following hypothesis is put forward in the study: an ecosystem as an institutional and organizational form of doing joint business is the result of the concurrent impact of inter-sectoral economic convergence and digitalization thereon, and the "connection of the base product provided to customer by the inter-sectoral economic convergence initiator prior to creating an ecosystem with digital and/or information technology" may be a criterion for classification of economic ecosystems. The novelty of the approach is as follows. The consideration of an ecosystem as a form of doing joint business simultaneously influenced by economic inter- sectoral convergence and digitalization has made it possible to define more exactly the concept of an ecosystem, identify an ecosystem parameter to be applied for classification of ecosystems and the main characteristic thereof the values of which may be used to classify economic ecosystems.