Restoring ecosystem brands: The role of sustainability-led innovation

Although business-to-business (B2B) firms increasingly realize the benefits of belonging to a sound ecosystem, few studies examine how heterogenous actors contribute to the branding of such a higher-order system. Building on the ecosystem concept and integrative branding theory, this research offers an evolving three-stage process model to guide actors in restoring an ecosystem brand suffering from the lack of innovativeness and public disapproval. Using data from 51 informants in three key groups of actors: (1) citizens, (2) firms, and (3) authorities, as well as complementary sources, this study uncovers a nuanced pattern of interplay between the different ecosystem actors. The findings show that the restoration of an ecosystem brand is possible through (1) reframing, (2) blending, and (3) proacting. These stages are driven by a single-actor, dyadic, and triadic focus on sustainability-led innovation. The proposed model provides important insights for practitioners and scholars seeking to understand brand restoration of complex, multi-actor, adaptive systems.