Ecosystems, strategy and business models in the age of digitization - how the manufacturing industry is going to change its logic

The digital transformation of people’s everyday life is progressing; almost everybody uses connected devices, shares information and builds a network according to the existing preferences or needs. A similar development takes place in the industrial environment, e.g. the IT- and software industry is already organized in deeply connected ecosystems. In ecosystems there are different strategic roles an organization can play, which affects an organization’s business strategy. If the firm is aware of this fact, it can adapt its strategy after having analyzed its position in the surrounding ecosystem. The strategy is implemented by an according business model. This business model will cause the active change of the organization’s role in the ecosystem and the digitization offers opportunities for implementation. This development is also going to change the traditional manufacturing sector. Thus, the change of the industry logic needs to be integrated into strategic decisions to be competitive in the future. In this paper an approach to handle these developments in the organization’s environment is addressed. The model of the ecosystem is transferred to the manufacturing industry. Based on this transfer and analysis, a roadmap for a consistent alignment of a firm in an ecosystem is suggested