MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE TO BECOME INVINCIBLE Towards a method for mapping a business ecosystem to design a digital business platform

Abstract

Literature concerning business ecosystems, and digital platforms give an extended range of guidelines on how to design a digital platform and transit towards a digital platform business. The literature assumes and already existing knowledge of the business ecosystem, but few gives no hands-on recommendations on how to create this knowledge. This thesis proposes a new method to map a business ecosystem prior to evaluating business platform opportunities. The method was developed in two steps. Initially a literature survey was conducted to identify common denominators from the ecosystem and platform literature. This common denominators, actor, activity, and asset, where then used as a foundation when the method was developed and applied on a Swedish mid-size construction company. The proposed method facilitates these three common denominators and is based on four phases. The method has proved to be able to create the desired knowledge by, in three workshops, identifying more than 200 entities, and 850 connections in the examined ecosystem. The method has also proved to display the ecosystem with low complexity when it is presented in a two-dimensional manner, such as printed on paper.