Aksenova, G (2020) The dark side of ecosystem orchestration: an empirical investigation of building information management in the digital built environment sector. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool, UK.
Abstract
Ecosystem strategies have increased in importance as a powerful means by which competing interdependent organisations cooperate to create innovation that no single firm can match. As such, nowadays, scholars, practitioners and policy makers actively search for mechanisms to enable ecosystem emergence and orchestration. Prior research has generally examined strategies of established long-lived successful ecosystems in which ecosystem orchestrators take different approaches (closed-system and open-system) to ecosystem orchestration. Less is known about failed ecosystems and the failure of ecosystem emergence in mature sectors. This thesis addresses this gap through three linked empirical studies set in the digital built environment (DBE) sector. The first is an inductive single-case study of failed open-system orchestration set in the national Building Information Management (BIM) programmes in Finland over the period from 1982 to 2002. The second is an inductive single-case study of a failed closed-system orchestration process led by a software vendor in the northern Californian DBE sector. Despite the significant differences in orchestration processes and contexts between the first and the second study, analysis of these cases indicated very similar results, namely the intentional preservation of the status quo by the sector and a failure in business model innovation, which indicates the importance of the nature of context. This led to the third study that inductively examined the contexts of the Finnish and northern III Californian DBE sectors and their importance for ecosystem orchestration. The failure of the DBE sector is further contrasted with successful ecosystems to articulate the critical constructs and components for ecosystem orchestration. Together, the empirical studies of this thesis offer theory regarding why and how ecosystems fail. Overall, this research contributes to the literature on strategy and organisation theory and sets the stage for ongoing discussions on the dark side of interorganisational relations.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | organisation theory; built environment; business model; information management; innovation; policy; emergence; failure; case study; Finland |
| Index terms: | practitioner, emergence, digital built environment, programme, building information management, strategy, built environment, business model, investigation, empirical study, case study, interorganizational, Finland |
| Subjects: | practitioner, research methods, Geography, data collection methods, business, computing systems, project controls, infrastructure and transport systems, information systems, systems engineering, management |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Geographical Context, Time Control, Urban Studies, Digital Applications, Roles and Professions, Business Strategy, Research Practice |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here