When and how do innovation ecosystems outperform integrated organizations? On technological interdependencies and ecosystem performance

Purpose Studies have documented the distinctive advantage of innovation ecosystems in integrating and recombining heterogeneous knowledge resources across firms' boundaries. However, hierarchical governance in the form of vertical integration is still preferred in many industries for organizing innovation, and the current literature touches little on the relative performance of different organizational structures (integrated firms vs innovation ecosystem) and the factors that lead firms to choose one over the other. The authors conjecture that structure of technological interdependence is one of such important factors. Using a computational experiment, the authors compare the innovation performance of ecosystems with integrated firms under different interdependency structures. Design/methodology/approach Using the NKC model, the authors incorporate non-generic complementarities and modularity into the technological interdependence between different components. The authors compare four different types of technological interdependence (modular, hierarchical, nearly modular, and random). Findings The results show that integrated firms with centralized search demonstrate stable and consistent performance that is robust to the structure of technological interdependencies, but an ecosystem significantly outperforms integrated firms with centralized or decentralized when the products exhibit modular or nearly-modular structures. Originality/value This study sheds light on why an ecosystem often exhibits modular structures while vertical integration is prevalent in industries with complex technological interdependence. In addition, it shows the evolutionary nature of ecosystems and indicates how the cooperation and competition between actors shape the interdependence structure of ecosystems.