Drivers for M&As and Strategic Alliances: an Industry Based Analysis

Abstract

Business ecosystem is a key concept that is nowadays ever more present in managers’ minds and is studied in many industrial business articles and research papers. A business ecosystem is the network of all actors that take part in the creation and delivery of a product and it includes all entities involved in the activities (Basole et al 2015). Similarly to what happens in nature, firms within an ecosystem may either survive or cease to exist (Moore 1993). For this reason, in an increasingly globalized world, the concept of business ecosystems is of upmost importance in every firm’s mind and it is seen as a fundamental way to gain knowledge, know-how and a stable competitive position within a market. Research suggests that firms can’t live in isolation, but rather, must interact with one another. Interacting through cooperation and competition, in fact, firms are able to innovate, support each other and progress (Moore 1993). Firms that work together in ecosystems are granted significant benefits as collaboration allows for the creation of synergies, risk sharing in development and ability to respond to external environmental changes (Thompson 2017 and Basole et al 2015). Above all, aggregating in business ecosystems, through formal agreements in particular, also represents a way to achieve resources and capabilities which are driver of the heterogeneity that allows to achieve sustained competitive advantage (Barney 1991).