Foreign market expansion of ecosystems: a process model

Ecosystems of actors that need to interact to create value for end users are becoming an integral part of firms’ strategic realities as they reach new markets. However, the phenomenon of ecosystem internationalisation has not been explored in comparison to its practical prevalence. We conceptualise this phenomenon as agent-led structuration on new markets. We build on the structural ecosystem literature and literature on internationalisation challenges to create our recursive process model of ecosystem creation on foreign markets. Creating ecosystems on foreign markets necessitates new ecosystem structures that are adjusted to value propositions by orchestrators through interaction with foreign market actors. The model explains how ecosystem orchestrators drive the international expansion of ecosystems through blueprinting and aligning mechanisms and how these mechanisms help manage liabilities of foreignness. The model accounts for the agency of involved actors, and with the help of the bottleneck concept bridges international business and ecosystem literatures.