The Role of Ecosystem Actors in Shaping Innovation in Emerging Ecosystems

Building on the extant literature on firms’ alliances and business ecosystems, this paper examines how alliances with actors playing different roles in an emerging ecosystem drive innovation. It draws on an original dataset of 221 alliances in the emerging electric vehicle ecosystem, initiated between 2000 and 2010 across the globe, to analyse whether and how alliances between different ecosystem actors, namely original equipment manufacturers, complementors, suppliers and institutions, influence the innovation activities of a focal firm, proxied by new electric vehicle patents granted. Our findings suggest that alliances with complementors are associated with a higher patenting activity of the focal firm while alliances with suppliers, institutions and OEMs hinder innovation. Moreover, alliances with complementors lead to innovation in technological classes that enable the overall functioning of the electric vehicle ecosystem. By shedding light on how the value creation outcomes of collaborations among different actors in an emerging ecosystem vary depending on their roles, our study offers a significant contribution to both the ecosystem and alliance literatures.