Sub-Plenary 2-3
Organizing Industries, Ecosystems, and Markets:
Between Legacy and Imagination
Friday, July 7, 2023, 16:00–17:30 CEST
Campus Ingegneria | Via Marengo 2 | 09123 Cagliari
Building D, floor 0, room: Magna
Organizers:
Paolo Aversa, City, University of London, United Kingdom
Elona Marku, University of Cagliari, Italy
Chair:
Paolo Aversa, City, University of London, United Kingdom
Panelists:
Shaz Ansari, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Carmelo Cennamo, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Mahka Moeen, University of North Carolina, USA
Pinar Ozcan, University of Oxford, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
The aim of this sub-plenary is to engage the audience in a thoughtful reflection about these new scenarios, discuss possible
ways in which former research and legacy approaches can help us make sense of these new trends, and identify new, imaginative
avenues for future research to understand and theorize about industries, ecosystems, and markets.
The sub-plenary will feature a group of expert international scholars which have extensively investigated the topics. The
goal is to bring together some regular members of the EGOS community with other scholars less familiar, which, despite internationally
renowned and working on highly complementary topics, have been less exposed to the EGOS community.
Industries are traditionally defined as a group of organizations producing and commercializing products or services that are
close substitutes (Gort & Klepper, 1982; Porter ,1990). They can be globally distributed or geographically clustered (Marshall,
1890; Krugman 1991). Industries emerge from three main triggers: scientific discoveries, unmet user needs, and grand societal
challenges (Agarwal et al., 2017). The emergence of industries has represented a source of innovation and welfare for societies,
has reshaped consumption habits, and characterized significant evolution in the history of humankind (Munir et al., 2021).
Yet, they have also posed new policy and managerial challenges, created negative externalities for the environment, and disrupted
markets populated by formerly flourishing incumbents. Industry emergence thus often witnesses the intervention or non-market
stakeholders, such as movements, institutions, and regulators (Gurses & Ozcan, 2015; Aversa et al., 2022). While scholars
have extensively tackled drivers and effects of industry emergence, recent phenomena affecting societies on a global scale
have challenged scholars and practitioners alike to re-consider what we know on industries, and how these can evolve to respond
to grand societal challenges (Agarwal et al., , 2022).
Phenomena such as global warming, migrations, wars, social conflicts, pandemics, have challenged indistries to re-think their
nature, activities, and competitive approach, as well as the way in which firms create, deliver, and capture value – thus
combining legacy approaches with novel, imaginative solutions. Companies and industries have recently been called into action
to collectively combine their business objectives with purposes to support community resilience and progress, social equality
and inclusion, climate change and preservation of biodiversity. The fast-paced and interdependent nature of technological
development, the pervasiveness of digitalization and the related rising complexity have provided both challenges and opportunities
to firms and policy makers. Scholars have suggested that understanding the growing complexity that binds together the success
and failure of various interrelated organizations requires a broader lens on industries, accounting even more than before
for partnerships, network, relations, thus expanding our approach to broader ecosystems of market and non-market actors (Adner
& Kapoor, 2010; Jacobides et al., 2018).
References
Adner, R., & Kapoor, R. (2010): “Value creation in innovation ecosystems: how the structure of technological interdependence
affects firm performance in new technology generations.” Strategic Management Journal, 31 (3), 306–333.
Agarwal, R., Kim, S., & Moeen, M. (2021): “Leveraging Private enterprise: incubation of new industries to address the public
sector’s mission-oriented grand challenges.” Strategy Science, 6 (4), 385–411.
Agarwal, R., Moeen, M., & Shah, S.K. (2017): “Athena’s birth: Triggers, actors, and actions preceding industry inception.”
Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 11 (3), 287–305.
Ashraf, N., Pinkse, J., & Ahmadsimab, A. (2017): “From Animosity to Affinity: The Interplay of Competing Logics and Interdependence
in Cross-Sector Partnerships.” Journal of Management Studies, 54 (6), 793–822.
Aversa, P., Huyghe, A., & Bonadio, G. (2021): “First Impressions Stick: Market Entry Strategies and Category Priming in the
Digital Domain.” Journal of Management Studies, 58 (7), 1721–1760.
Gort, M., & Klepper, S. (1982): “Time paths in the diffusion of product innovations.” The Economic Journal, 92 (367), 630–653.
Gurses, K., & Ozcan, P. (2015): “Entrepreneurship in regulated markets: framing contests and collective action to introduce
pay TV in the US.” Academy of Management Journal, 58 (6), 1709–1739.
Jacobides, M.G., Cennamo, C., & Gawer, A. (2018): “Towards a theory of ecosystems.” Strategic Management Journal, 39 (8), 2255–2276.
Krugman, P.R. (1991): Geography and Trade. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Marshall, A. (1890): Principles of Economics. London: MacMillan.
Munir, K., Ansari, S., & Brown, D. (2021): “From Patañjali to the ‘gospel of sweat’: Yoga’s remarkable transformation from
a sacred movement into a thriving global market.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 66 (3), 854–899.
Porter, M.E. (1990): Competitive Advantage of Nations. Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York: The Free Press.
Shaz Ansari is Professor of Strategy & Innovation at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. His research interests
related to institutional processes and diffusion of practices; social and environmental issues, technological and management
innovations; value creation and new market development; offshoring and outsourcing, reputation management, and bottom-of-the-pyramid
strategies.
Paolo Aversa is Professor of Strategy at Bayes Business School, City, University of London, United Kingdom. His research concentrates
on innovation and the evolution of industries and ecosystems. He focuses on technology-intensive settings to explore radical
innovations, digital transformation, and business models. Paolo serves as associate editor at Journal of Management Studies, and guest editor at Academy of Management Discoveries.
Carmelo Cennamo is Professor with special responsibilities of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. His research
interests span across digital platforms, digital markets, ecosystems; he studies how firms manage their interdependent activities
and how they try to shape the business context where these activities take place to gain competitive advantage. Carmelo served
as guest editor at Academy of Management Discoveries.
Elona Marku is an Assistant Professor qualified as an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Cagliari, Italy. Her research
primarily focuses on the management of technology and innovation, and the implications of these for organizational performance. Current
projects delve into the dynamics related to the emergence of ecosystems and the diffusion of emerging technologies.
Mahka Moeen is Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and Sarah Graham Kenan Scholar at the Kenan-Flagler Business School,
University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, USA. Her research focuses on how firms and entrepreneurs create and enter nascent
industries. In studying the co-evolution of entrepreneurial firms and nascent industries, she is particularly in strategies
that firms undertake during early industry stages and even prior to the first ever commercialization within an industry context.
Mahka serves as senior editor at Organization Science.
Pinar Ozcan is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Her research
interests relate to strategy and entrepreneurship in technology markets. Pinar’s current research includes the open banking
project, where she examines the industry disruption in banking through regulation and entry of fintechs, and the development
of the sharing economy. She serves as associate editor at Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal.