Orchestrating ecosystems: a multi-layered framework

Ecosystems are distinguished from other structural arrangements for value co-production by the nature of their governance and coordination challenges. As ecosystems are marked by their relative non-reliance upon formal, 1–1 supplier contracts to govern and coordinate productive activities, they need to find non-hierarchical ways of orchestrating ecosystem constituents such that a coherent system-level value offering is enabled and targeted at a defined user audience. Importantly, ecosystems cannot rely on ‘command-and-control’ governance to coordinate inputs from different participants, as would be the case of conventional supply chains. Instead, ecosystem leaders need to persuade others to make voluntary inputs that are consistent with the ecosystem’s overarching value offering. I call this task ‘ecosystem orchestration’. In this essay I suggest an ecosystem orchestration framework that distinguishes between technological, economic, institutional, and behavioural layers of ecosystem orchestration. I begin by highlighting distinctive governance challenges of ecosystems. I then provide a brief overview of the ecosystem orchestration literature. Then I introduce the different domains in which orchestration can be exercised. I conclude with a framework for orchestrating innovation ecosystems from birth to maturity. In addition to distinguishing between and describing technological, economic, institutional, and behavioural layers of ecosystem orchestration, the model also distinguishes between three stages of ecosystem momentum creation: initiation, scaling, and control. This framework has been designed to help practitioners to design strategies for ecosystem momentum creation.