Business ecosystem analysis framework

The concept of business ecosystems has gained popularity from researchers and practitioners since first introduced in Moore's article in Harvard Business Review in 1993 “Predators and prey: a new ecology of competition”. Inspired by biology, the concept of business ecosystems provides a metaphor to comprehend the inter-wined nature of industries [1]. The reason behind the popularity of this concept and its differentiation from other business theories like Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas [2] and Porter's Value Chain Approach [3] is its comprehensiveness and inclusion of several other components surrounding any business. In this paper, the necessary methods, components and tools for creating, analyzing and managing a business ecosystem successfully will be introduced. The aim of the paper is to propose a Business Ecosystem Analysis Framework that covers all the steps needed to analyze, manage and ensure the feasibility and sustainability of any ecosystem. This framework can be used to locate strengths and weaknesses of an ecosystem, identify its main actors and define how their maturity, interconnectedness and continuity can be improved. The results of the research can be applied to any industry sector.