Article Review: The Evolution Of The Digital Service Ecosystem And Digital Business Model Innovation In Retail - The Emergence Of Meta-Ecosystems And The Value Of Physical Interactions

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International Journal of Business and Technology Management e-ISSN: 2682-7646 | Vol.5, No. 1, 1-3, 2023

http://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijbtm

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Article Review: The Evolution Of The Digital Service Ecosystem And Digital Business Model Innovation In Retail - The

Emergence Of Meta-Ecosystems And The Value Of Physical Interactions

Mohammad Oryza Ananda^1*, Sharifah Nurafizah Syed Annuar², Ainul Azreen Adam¹

1 Arshad Ayub Graduate Business School, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor

2 Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sabah Branch, Kota Kinabalu Campus, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

*Corresponding Author: [email protected]

Accepted: 15 February 2023 | Published: 1 March 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ijbtm.2023.5.1.1

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Title: The evolution of the digital service ecosystem and digital business model innovation in retail: The emergence of meta-ecosystems and the value of physical interactions

Authors: M. Palmi, L. Mieh, P. Oghazi, V. Parida and J. Wincent Source: Technological Forecasting & Social Change (Elsevier Inc.) Date of Publication: 19 January 2022

Volume and Issue No: 177 (2022) 121496

ISSN/DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121496

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1. Introduction

M. Palmi, L. Mieh, P. Oghazi, V. Parida and J. Wincent collaborated in qualitative research study on the external relationship between enterprise retailers and digital service providers in creating: 1) New value proposition and 2) New differentiation amongst competitors. The 17 participants were chosen from 5 enterprise retailers in Sweden, conducted in longitudinal study with the first interview were organized between May and October 2020 and the second interview were organized between January and June 2021. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, along with supplementary and secondary data, the researcher came up with the framework and the subsequent results. Along with the two research objectives above, there were three contributions to the literature and three recommendations as the result of the study.

2. Study Objectives

Research Question of this study:

RQ1: How do enterprise retailers assimilate the digital ecommerce technologies into their business model and bring on board the external agents to create new value proposition and value differentiation.

When so called “brick-and-mortal” enterprise retailers needs to be more compelling with the

“born digital” enterprise retailers’ counterpart, the former needs to bring on board the digital ecommerce agencies which specializing in digital ecommerce services. The later would provide digital ecommerce services on the enterprise retailers behalf. This digital ecommerce service ecosystem would subsequently to form a meta-ecosystem in the first stage. On the

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second stage, the meta-ecosystem would be enhanced to differentiate its value propositions with the competitor’s meta-ecosystem. Definition of meta-ecosystem is: a commonality of members, independent entity yet interdependent, which targeting specific consumers with distinct offerings in non-competing engagement atmosphere.

3. Method Used

The interviewer would interview the participants twice: on stage one and stage two. Then the researcher would analyze the data independently without involving the interviewers.

3.1. Participant

There are 17 participants from 5 enterprise retailers. The interviews were conducted twice, on the first stage (between May and October 2020) and on the second stage (between January and June 2021) with the same participants and the same interviewers.

4. Review Framework

Figure 1: Framework for the transition towards digital business models

The objective is to achieve “digital business model” which comprises of new value capture, new value proposition, new value creation and new value delivery. In this framework, only the new value creation and new delivery process are taking into account when the enterprise retailers are in collaboration with the external agents. Hence, the study was conducted in two stages of interviews: stage one and stage two, to analyze how the meta-ecosystem was first formed and then how it was differentiated intentionally.

5. Review Analysis

The study separates the interviewers with the 2 (two) researchers. The interviewers would transcribe the conversation and pass them to the researchers. This would avoid possible biases.

The researchers would then do the coding by highlighting the phrases and coping the quote and the code into Microsoft Excel sheet.

6. Principal Conclusion On Stage One:

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The enterprise retailers would collaborate with specialized digital ecommerce service providers to initiate a digital business model. As enterprise from the retailer ecosystem was in collaboration with the external agents from the digital ecommerce service ecosystem to create a new value proposition for end-customers, a new meta-ecosystem emerges.

On Stage Two:

The enterprise retailers would seek to distinct themselves from their competitors in the meta- ecosystem that use very similar (or even the same) service offering when they are engaging their specific consumers.

Contributions to the literature:

C1: It responds to core connection principals between the enterprise retailers and external agent, and in return, to evaluate the return of investment (ROI) of digital ecommerce technology’s best practices to yield highest value

C2: It contributes to the literature review matrix development on newly created meta- ecosystem, maturing meta-ecosystem and coordination of meta-ecosystem amongst stakeholders

C3: It discovers new insight on least explored digital ecommerce transformation in the enterprise sector of retailers.

Recommendation / lesson learned

R1: Physical collaboration and personal chemistry between enterprise retailer and its supplier would remain the key points moving forward

R2: Enterprise retail managers should initiate the trusting relationship with digital ecommerce agents

R3: Enterprise retail managers should perpetually evolve their firm’s signature service offering distinction.

7. Personal Observation (Pros/Cons)

Pros:

1) The study was longitudinal, whereby the interviewers conducted the interview twice, at the first stage and at the second stage

2) From the two separate interview time, then the researchers managed to discover the differences and came up with the 3 (three) lesson learned above.

Cons:

1) Longitudinal study usually took a long time to complete the project

2) The study did not mention the impact on sales revenue prior to the acceptance of “digital business model”, sales revenue after the stage one, and sales revenue after the stage two. I believe the sales revenue figure would be the quantifiable value to measure in the digitalization effort taken by the enterprise retailers.

References

Palmi, M., Mieh´e, L., Oghazi, P., Parida, V., Wincent, J. (2022). The evolution of the digital service ecosystem and digital business model innovation in retail: The emergence of meta-ecosystems and the value of physical interactions. Technological Forecasting

& Social Change 177 (2022) 121496.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121496

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