IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i3p1606-d738232.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring Innovation Ecosystem of Incumbents in the Face of Technological Discontinuities: Automobile Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Joohyun Kim

    (Graduate School of Management of Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, 2066 Seobu-Ro, Suwon 16419, Korea)

  • Byungjoo Paek

    (Graduate School of Management of Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, 2066 Seobu-Ro, Suwon 16419, Korea)

  • Heesang Lee

    (Graduate School of Management of Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, 2066 Seobu-Ro, Suwon 16419, Korea)

Abstract

In recent years, the innovation ecosystem concept has received much attention in the strategy and innovation fields to address radical or discontinuous innovation. This study aims to explore the innovation ecosystem construct of incumbents in the face of technological discontinuities, focusing on the ecosystem actors (that is, incumbents, component providers, and complementors) and their activities for sustainable value creation. First, we conducted a literature review of 34 highly cited and relevant research documents discussing the innovation ecosystem concept to extract key phrases for the innovation ecosystem’s research framework. Then, through the lens of dynamic capabilities, the five core capabilities of incumbent focal firms—collaboration and networking, opportunity sensing, entrepreneurial orientation, knowledge management, and strategic flexibility—are derived as key elements of the research framework. In addition, the following case study conducted by the content analysis of two leading automobile incumbents, Volkswagen and Toyota, supports and concretizes the established research framework. We conclude that as the value chain in the industry is open to diverse emerging experts holding critical technologies in the era of discontinuous innovation, the ecosystem actors are extensively linked beyond existing industry boundaries. Next, incumbents’ proposed five core capabilities are essential for their successful navigation of the complex innovation ecosystem. Finally, the case study also indicates that the traditional automobile giants in the existing ecosystem are heading toward sustainable value creation via technology internalization and dominant platform building to transform themselves into leaders of a new innovation ecosystem in the era of Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Services, and Electric (C.A.S.E.) innovation in the automobile industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Joohyun Kim & Byungjoo Paek & Heesang Lee, 2022. "Exploring Innovation Ecosystem of Incumbents in the Face of Technological Discontinuities: Automobile Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-31, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:3:p:1606-:d:738232
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1606/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1606/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hakan Ozalp & Carmelo Cennamo & Annabelle Gawer, 2018. "Disruption in Platform‐Based Ecosystems," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(7), pages 1203-1241, November.
    2. Uwe Cantner & James A. Cunningham & Erik E. Lehmann & Matthias Menter, 2021. "Entrepreneurial ecosystems: a dynamic lifecycle model," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 407-423, June.
    3. Ron Adner & Rahul Kapoor, 2016. "Innovation ecosystems and the pace of substitution: Re-examining technology S-curves," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 625-648, April.
    4. Shimei Jiang & Yimei Hu & Ziyuan Wang, 2019. "Core Firm Based View on the Mechanism of Constructing an Enterprise Innovation Ecosystem: A Case Study of Haier Group," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-26, June.
    5. Tsujimoto, Masaharu & Kajikawa, Yuya & Tomita, Junichi & Matsumoto, Yoichi, 2018. "A review of the ecosystem concept — Towards coherent ecosystem design," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 49-58.
    6. Lütjen, Heiner & Schultz, Carsten & Tietze, Frank & Urmetzer, Florian, 2019. "Managing ecosystems for service innovation: A dynamic capability view," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 506-519.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Evgeny V. Popov & Victoria L. Simonova & Igor P. Chelak, 2022. "Analytical Model of the Firm’s Ecosystem: Comparison of Large Industrial Enterprises in Russia," Journal of Applied Economic Research, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, vol. 21(4), pages 775-794.
    2. Zoltán Csedő & József Magyari & Máté Zavarkó, 2022. "Dynamic Corporate Governance, Innovation, and Sustainability: Post-COVID Period," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-21, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yanzhang Gu & Longying Hu & Hongjin Zhang & Chenxuan Hou, 2021. "Innovation Ecosystem Research: Emerging Trends and Future Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-21, October.
    2. Gomes, Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos & Flechas, Ximena Alejandra & Facin, Ana Lucia Figueiredo & Borini, Felipe Mendes, 2021. "Ecosystem management: Past achievements and future promises," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    3. Lütjen, Heiner & Schultz, Carsten & Tietze, Frank & Urmetzer, Florian, 2019. "Managing ecosystems for service innovation: A dynamic capability view," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 506-519.
    4. Jarryd Daymond & Eric Knight & Maria Rumyantseva & Steven Maguire, 2023. "Managing ecosystem emergence and evolution: Strategies for ecosystem architects," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 1-27, April.
    5. Omid Ali Kharazmi & Lia Shaddel, 2024. "Evolutionary and Structural Evaluation of Innovation Ecosystems with the Aim of Mapping and Increasing Performance of Mashhad’s Gold and Jewelry Innovation Ecosystem," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 8231-8261, June.
    6. Cozzolino, Alessio & Geiger, Susi, 2024. "Ecosystem disruption and regulatory positioning: Entry strategies of digital health startup orchestrators and complementors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(2).
    7. Marcon, Arthur & Ribeiro, José Luis Duarte & Olteanu, Yasmin & Fichter, Klaus, 2024. "How the interplay between innovation ecosystems and market contingency factors impacts startup innovation," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Okpalaoka, Chijindu Iheanacho, 2023. "Research on the digital economy: Developing trends and future directions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    9. Kahle, Júlia Hofmeister & Marcon, Érico & Ghezzi, Antonio & Frank, Alejandro G., 2020. "Smart Products value creation in SMEs innovation ecosystems," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    10. Xiaohang Zhang & Ran Cui & Yajun Ji, 2024. "Exploring Innovation Ecosystem with Multi-Layered Heterogeneous Networks of Global 5G Communication Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-28, February.
    11. Brea, Edgar, 2023. "A framework for mapping actor roles and their innovation potential in digital ecosystems," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    12. Jing Huang & Hongqi Wang & Jianlong Wu & Zhongji Yang & Xiaobo Hu & Mengmeng Bao, 2020. "Exploring the Key Driving Forces of the Sustainable Intergenerational Evolution of the Industrial Alliance Innovation Ecosystem: Evidence from a Case Study of China’s TDIA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-31, February.
    13. Lijie Feng & Jiarui Lu & Jinfeng Wang, 2021. "A Systematic Review of Enterprise Innovation Ecosystems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-26, May.
    14. Nylund, Petra A. & Ferràs-Hernández, Xavier & Pareras, Luis & Brem, Alexander, 2022. "The emergence of entrepreneurial ecosystems based on enabling technologies: Evidence from synthetic biology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 728-735.
    15. Silva, Lucas Emmanuel Nascimento & Gomes, Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos & Faria, Aline Mariane de & Borini, Felipe Mendes, 2024. "Innovation processes in ecosystem settings: An integrative framework and future directions," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    16. Jiatao Li & Liang Chen & Jingtao Yi & Jiye Mao & Jianwen Liao, 2019. "Ecosystem-specific advantages in international digital commerce," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(9), pages 1448-1463, December.
    17. Xin Cao & Taohua Ouyang & Puzant Balozian & Sixuan Zhang, 2020. "The Role of Managerial Cognitive Capability in Developing a Sustainable Innovation Ecosystem: A Case Study of Xiaomi," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-27, September.
    18. Palmié, Maximilian & Wincent, Joakim & Parida, Vinit & Caglar, Umur, 2020. "The evolution of the financial technology ecosystem: An introduction and agenda for future research on disruptive innovations in ecosystems," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    19. Miehé, Lucas & Palmié, Maximilian & Oghazi, Pejvak, 2023. "Connection successfully established: How complementors use connectivity technologies to join existing ecosystems – Four archetype strategies from the mobility sector," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    20. Chin, Tachia & Shi, Yi & Singh, Sanjay Kumar & Agbanyo, George Kwame & Ferraris, Alberto, 2022. "Leveraging blockchain technology for green innovation in ecosystem-based business models: A dynamic capability of values appropriation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:3:p:1606-:d:738232. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.