Although we previously discussed several co-creation examples in class, focusing on emerging business models introduced by different startups, we partially ignored the struggle of established industry players to engage in co-creation. A great deal of startup funding ultimately comes from the more established class of corporates. Most of these companies engage in uncoordinated efforts to integrate new business ventures, however only a few corporations manage to build a coordinated platform for open innovation integrating various stakeholders.
I must admit that the first time I have seen Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the actor you might know from ‘A River Runs Through It’ or ‘500 Days of Summer’) introduce HitREC●rd I was very enthusiastic but could not imagine how an open collaborative production company could deliver what takes traditional production companies a great amount of funding, creativity and coordination.
Platform ecosystems offer an interesting setting for analyzing the dynamics of interorganizational collaboration, cocreation and competition. Extensive ecosystems have been an influential contributor to the success and ultimately the survival of IT platforms.
In the article ‘Cocreation of Value in a Platform Ecosystem’ Ceccagnoli et al. (2012) investigated small, complementary solution providers within the SAP enterprise software platform ecosystem. The research study analyzed 1,210 independent software vendors (ISVs) with a broad collection of different software offerings to examine whether participation in an ecosystem partnership increases business performance and how appropriability mechanisms (like patents) can shape this partnership.
Consumer Value Creation 