The Business Ecosystem Management Canvas

Increasing digitalization and the associated servitization lead to changes in user behavior and understanding of benefits. Customers are asking for faster adjustments to the value proposition and a higher degree of individualization. Companies in the mechanical and plant engineering sector are forced to develop innovative end-to-end solutions, so-called product service systems based on new business models. The integration of new types of competencies and resources is essential for this. Dynamic, cross-company systems are emerging as a new organizational form of economic activity, so-called business ecosystems. It becomes clear that there is an increased need for control and coordination, the business ecosystem management. The aim of the paper is to identify design fields and activities by means of inductive category building based on a literature research and expert workshops as well as the formation of the Business Ecosystem Management Canvas. The canvas is designed as an orientation guide and supports the responsible actors in the orchestration of business ecosystems, especially in their emergence and diversification phase. This was validated using a real case example.