Openness in the Orchestration of Ecosystems: A Resource-based Perspective

Currently, many organizations open parts of their information systems (IS) via the Internet to the public in order to co-create value with from end-consumer contributions. Yet, these practices of openness are still to be integrated into the existing strategic management theories (Chesbrough and Appleyard, 2007). We use a resource-based perspective to develop a framework for the analysis configurations of different types of openness in order to move towards such integration. We consider two dimensions of openness of resources (access and control) as well as different types of relations between resources (complementarity and specifity). Furthermore, we analyze two mobile ecosystems on multiple levels to show the applicability of the framework. The paper contributes to the further development of the resource-based theory and it provides a tool for the analysis of cases of openness of resources. Additionally, the paper provides a novel perspective and of the structure of mobile ecosystems