Governing Ecosystems to Generate Digital Innovation

In this paper, we study how to govern ecosystems that are not based on digital platforms to generate digital innovation. Drawing upon an in-depth case study of an ecosystem in the automotive industry, we identify distinct ecosystem governance activities, generative effects of the parallel engagement of these activities, and antecedents in the ecosystem’s technological environment. Based on these insights, we develop a contingency framework of ecosystem governance for digital innovation. We propose that the parallel engagement of governance activities generates digital innovation as it strikes an ecosystem-wide balance between exploration and exploitation as well as between multilateralism and unilateralism. Our study advances research on the governance of ecosystems that are not based on digital platforms.