We analyze the role and effect of ecosystem leadership understood as the exercise of effort towards others with the purpose of establishing and maintaining an ecosystem around a focal systemic innovation. While there has been much attention to the firms that sponsor ecosystems in the ecosystem literature, ecosystem leaders are usually characterized in an atheoretical manner, and the emphasis is on, leadership in existing ecosystems, thus neglecting the role leadership might play in ecosystem emergence. We clarify and provide theoretical grounding for the important role of leadership in emerging and maturing ecosystems. Building on transaction cost economics, we conceptualize an ecosystem as a governance structure that enables and sustains coordination and cooperation among multiple economic agents towards a focal innovative value proposition. Our basic argument is that the emergence of such an ecosystems is hampered by coordination and cooperation problems which markets and the price system cannot solve by itself. Resolving these problems requires assistance, and such assistance is what we call ecosystem leadership. To further characterize the exercise of leadership we use Teece's tripartite dynamic capabilities scheme. Leadership enables ecosystem emergence through three externally-oriented dynamic capabilities: facilitating the formation of a shared vision (sensing), inducing others to make ecosystem-specific investments (seizing) and engaging in ad hoc problem solving to create and maintain stability (reconfiguring/transforming). The latter capability in particular often continues to be important in a mature ecosystem. We provide a characterization of these capabilities and argue that the ecosystem leader role in a mature ecosystem likely stems from having successfully exercised these capabilities and that their exercise also puts the leader in a prime position for value capture. We discuss implications of our arguments for ecosystem theories, for managers and for policy makers.

我们分析了生态系统领导力的作用和影响，理解为对他人的努力，目的是围绕焦点系统创新建立和维护生态系统。虽然在生态系统文献中对赞助生态系统的公司给予了很多关注，但生态系统领导者通常以非理论的方式进行描述，重点是在现有生态系统中的领导地位，从而忽视了领导地位在生态系统出现中可能发挥的作用。我们阐明并提供了领导力在新兴和成熟生态系统中的重要作用的理论基础。在交易成本经济学的基础上，我们将生态系统概念化为一种治理结构，它支持并维持多个经济主体之间的协调与合作，以实现一个集中的创新价值主张。我们的基本论点是，这种生态系统的出现受到市场和价格体系本身无法解决的协调与合作问题的阻碍。解决这些问题需要帮助，而这种帮助就是我们所说的生态系统领导力。为了进一步表征领导力的行使，我们使用 Teece 的三方动态能力方案。领导力通过三种面向外部的动态能力促成生态系统的出现：促进共同愿景的形成（感知）、引导他人进行特定于生态系统的投资（抓住）和参与 这种帮助就是我们所说的生态系统领导力。为了进一步表征领导力的行使，我们使用 Teece 的三方动态能力方案。领导力通过三种面向外部的动态能力促成生态系统的出现：促进共同愿景的形成（感知）、引导他人进行特定于生态系统的投资（抓住）和参与 这种帮助就是我们所说的生态系统领导力。为了进一步表征领导力的行使，我们使用 Teece 的三方动态能力方案。领导力通过三种面向外部的动态能力促成生态系统的出现：促进共同愿景的形成（感知）、引导他人进行特定于生态系统的投资（抓住）和参与临时解决问题以创造和维持稳定性（重新配置/转换）。在成熟的生态系统中，后一种能力尤其重要。我们提供了这些能力的特征，并认为成熟生态系统中的生态系统领导者角色可能源于成功行使这些能力，并且他们的行使也使领导者处于价值获取的首要位置。我们讨论了我们的论点对生态系统理论、管理者和政策制定者的影响。