Ke Rong

Business ecosystem and stakeholders’ role transformation: Evidence from Chinese emerging electric vehicle industry

Nurturing an emerging industry’s business ecosystem always requires stakeholders’ efforts and role transformation. By systematically reviewing and studying the evolution of the Chinese electric vehicle industry, this paper constructs a three-dimensional theoretical framework including stages of business ecosystem lifecycle, stakeholder classification and functional roles, to analyse the transformation both of different stakeholders and their functional roles. The findings show that business ecosystem stakeholders have experienced role transformation following a mechanism defined as the ‘Triple Oscillation’ Model during the evolution of the emerging industry. These findings also help develop a conceptual model of agent-based system for business ecosystem evolution, which could be a starting point for further emerging industry study.

Linking business ecosystem lifecycle with platform strategy: a triple view of technology, application and organisation

This paper explores platform strategies along the business ecosystem lifecycle (BELC), based on a multiple-case study. Developing observations on platform strategies from a firm level to a business ecosystem level, the study investigates the issue of platform strategy through three views, respectively technology, application and organisation. As a result, a general evolutional pattern of platform strategy along the BELC is identified, where an open strategy emerges at the birth and expansion phases, then a dominating strategy rises at the authority phase, and finally the opportunistic strategy takes over at the renewal phase. This paper connects the core firms in the business ecosystem with the evolutionary platform strategies.

Evolution of collaborative innovation network in China’s wind turbine manufacturing industry

This paper studies the ‘catching-up’ process of China’s emerging wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem, and analyses the dynamics of the shifting collaborative innovation network for the period 1980–2011. We have focused on the leading wind turbine manufacturers [i.e., manufacturers of entire wind turbine system integrators (EWSIs)], as well as manufacturers of the turbines’ sub-ecosystems (i.e., four key component provider manufacturers: blade, gearbox, generator and control system). A network analysis method was adopted to depict the evolutionary process of the wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem. In summary, this research explores: 1) the different technology accumulation/localisation patterns in four different phases of the manufacturing ecosystem, and the collaborative innovation network; 2) the different roles and their interactions in the wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem in China; 3) the driving forces of the evolution of the wind turbine manufacturing ecosystem. The findings aim to demonstrate the evolutionary trajectory of China in terms of the ‘catching-up’ of this industry, and contribute to theories of the business ecosystem lifecycle and complementary assets.

Nurturing business ecosystems to deal with industry uncertainties

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which firms nurture the business ecosystem for the development of emerging industries.Design/methodology/approach – The research uses a qualitative research methodology with multiple case studies, namely two groups of companies in the PC and mobile business ecosystems.Findings – This paper argues that industry renewal or emergence relies on the convergence and evolutionary process of the relevant business ecosystems. It analyzes the challenges faced by emerging industries, especially uncertainty issues concerning technology, application, and market. To deal with these uncertainty issues, firms within business ecosystems have developed two kinds of strategies: the core‐firm platform strategy and the niche‐firm supplementary strategy with an integrated supply chain. By using such strategies, firms together follow a three‐step process, including adjustment, adoption, and convergence, to help nurture the emerging industry.Research limitations/impli...

Business ecosystem extension: facilitating the technology substitution

This paper studies how the technological ecosystem extension facilitates the technology substitution in an emerging industry. Specifically, this paper has three findings: 1) the technological ecosystem with an expanded scope including supply, demand and intermediaries; 2) two type of ecosystem extension as the bottom-up and top-down ecosystem extension; 3) the determinants of sustaining the ecosystem extension. We have conducted in-depth interviews in the Chinese low-speed electric vehicle industry, which adopted the bottom-up ecosystem extension by comparing with the traditional car industry with top-down ecosystem extension to the emerging EV industry. This paper also offers managerial implications to the focal firms and policy makers to capture the emerging opportunities within an ecosystem.

Exploring the service quality in the e-commerce context: a triadic view

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the quality factors influencing customer satisfaction in the electronic commerce (e-commerce) context using a triadic view of customer-e-retailer-third-party logistics provider, and to investigate the impacts of service quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty in the e-retailing supply chain. , – A literature review is used to determine the conceptual model and develop the measurement scales. Data are collected through a web survey mainly conducted in China. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the collected data and test the research hypotheses. , – The results verify the proposed service quality framework, consisting of two dimensions (electronic service (e-service) quality and logistics service quality), in the e-commerce context. The results indicate that e-service quality and logistics service quality are strongly linked to customer satisfaction; that is, with e-service and logistics service, respectively. e-Service quality positively impacts customer satisfaction with logistics services, but logistics service quality negatively impacts customer satisfaction with e-services. Moreover, customer satisfaction with e-services is positively associated with customer loyalty for both e-services and logistics services. However, customer satisfaction with logistics services has no direct impact on related customer loyalty, and negatively impacts customer loyalty with e-services. , – The survey focusses only on China; future data should verify whether different cultural backgrounds will impact the research results. , – The results show that e-retailers should not only focus on e-service quality, but also logistics service quality, which is critical to the success of e-commerce. , – A two-dimensional (e-service and logistics) service quality framework is proposed and empirically assessed in the context of the e-retailing supply chain. These impacts of the path of service quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty are highlighted.

The Nature of the Co-Evolutionary Process Complex Product Development in the Mobile Computing Industry’s Business Ecosystem

A business ecosystem is a community that consists of various levels of interdependent firms which co-evolve in an ongoing cycle and constantly renew themselves. By undertaking an in-depth, qualitative study of multinational companies in the mobile computing industry based in the Great China region, the United Kingdom, and the United States, we explore the nature of the co-evolutionary process and its influence on complex product development. We find that this process consists of three domains of activity: co-vision, co-design, and co-create. We also find that each domain of activity plays a different but important role in stimulating collaborative innovation for complex product development in the mobile computing industry’s business ecosystem. We also discuss the implications for theory and future research directions.

Secondary innovation: the path of catch-up with ‘Made in China’

Is endogenous innovation merely in the form of original innovation? In this paper, we attempt to illustrate a typical catch-up path with ‘Made in China’ named ‘secondary innovation’, which goes towards the virtuous circle of foreign technology acquisition and endogenous technological innovation, through an indepth longitudinal case study. Although secondary innovation is based on foreign imported technology, it is fundamentally different from simple imitation and adaptation of imported technology. Basic assimilation is just the first step of secondary innovation, and is further followed by ‘structural understanding’, ‘functional understanding’ and ‘conceptual understanding’. Without considerable active assimilation and absorption, the latecomer firm would probably fall into a vicious circle of ‘import – lag behind – import again’.

Shanzhai manufacturing and its network behaviours

The aim of this paper is to explore an indigenous innovation phenomenon - Shanzhai Phenomenon - emerged in Chinese mobile phone industry, and to understand its network based behaviours. Although the Shanzhai Phenomenon emerged from the end of 2008, the detailed understandings about its systems and operational mechanism are still very limited. This research provides a very early stage of observation, especially focused on the business networks activities featured within the Shanzhai phenomenon.

Service Supply Chain: Configuration Structure and Operations Mechanism

The main purpose of this research is to identify the configuration structure of a service supply chain from a view of modularity, to address the operations mechanism of the service supply chain from the perspective of service-dominant logic. Literature review and case study are adopted in this research. Data are mainly collected through interview and secondary documents. The results shown that the service supply chain is configured with different types of module actor. A framework is proposed with dimensions of Configuration and Co-creation to explain the operations mechanism of a service supply chain.