Abstract The objective of this dissertation is to identify how to make business ecosystem formation more efficient and how to evaluate ecosystem success capabilities. Business ecosystem formation consists of transition of a front-end phase ecosystem into an operational ecosystem. How the formation takes place and how it can be governed is approached through five formation elements: dynamics, strategy, governance, behaviour and evolution. The elements are defined based on literature review as the dissertation body of knowledge. Through inductive case studies and defined body of knowledge this dissertation presents as a synthesis a multidimensional model to support healthy business ecosystem formation. The model describes how ecosystem formation should be driven by key end customer requirements and how those contribute to ecosystem planning. Based on the key end customers it is possible to define initial joint value proposals and core service providers. This dissertation introduces roles of anchoring and moderator actors to business ecosystem discussion as actors leading the ecosystem formation and maintaining the ecosystem structure through strong relationships. The dissertation proposes conceptual models to assess ecosystem health and stakeholder’ salience. Ecosystem health can be assessed with sustainability, resilience, innovativeness and renewal capabilities. Importance of actors and their impact probability can be identified with salience assessment. Both assessment models enable ecosystem planners to monitor the formation progress and to focus governance activities. This dissertation is qualitative and inductive based on literature review and conducting empirical case studies in multiple business ecosystem type of environments in Finland and Taiwan. The dissertation consists of five academic publications and synthetization of them into this compilation book. The principal results of this dissertation include more detailed insights to support business ecosystem definition and scoping. Ecosystem formation expands the earlier contributions on business ecosystem evolution. Roles of anchoring and moderator actors complement the ecosystem roles enhancing planning. The assessment models provide for both practitioners and academics framework for evaluating ecosystem status. / Tiivistelmä Tämän väitöskirjan tavoitteena on tunnistaa kuinka liiketoimintaekosysteemin muodostumista voidaan tehostaa ja kuinka ekosysteemin kestävyyttä voidaan arvioida. Liiketoimintaekosysteemin muodostuminen käsittelee alkuvaiheen ekosysteemin muutosta toiminnalliseksi ekosysteemiksi. Ekosysteemin muodostumista ja muodostumisen hallinnointia käsitellään viidessä elementissä: dynamiikan, strategian, käyttäytymisen sekä evoluution kautta. Kirjallisuusperustaiset elementit muodostavat väitöskirjan tutkimusperustan. Induktiivisten tapaustutkimusten sekä tutkimusperustan pohjalta väitöskirja syntetisoi mallin joka tukee kestävän liiketoimintaekosysteemin muodostumista. Malli kuvaa kuinka muodostumisen tulee perustua valikoitujen loppuasiakkaiden vaatimuksiin ja kuinka nämä vaatimukset vaikuttavat ekosysteemin suunnitteluun. Loppuasiakkaiden perusteella määritetään ekosysteemin alustavat yhteiset arvoehdotukset sekä avainpalveluntarjoajat. Väitöskirja lisää ankkuri- ja moderaattoritoimijoiden roolit liiketoimintaekosysteemiä käsittelevään keskusteluun toimijoina, jotka edistävät ekosysteemin muodostumista ja ylläpitävät ekosysteemiä vahvojen suhteiden kautta. Väitöskirja esittää konseptuaaliset mallit ekosysteemin kestävyyden ja sidosryhmien merkittävyyden arviointiin. Ekosysteemin kestävyyttä arvioidaan jatkuvuuden, joustavuuden, innovatiivisuuden sekä uudistumiskyvyn kautta. Toimijoiden vaikutusvaltaa ja vaikutustodennäköisyyttä arvioidaan merkittävyysarvioinnilla. Ekosysteemin suunnittelutahot voivat hyödyntää malleja muodostumisen seurantaan sekä hallinnollisten toimien keskittämiseen. Väitöskirjatutkimus on kvalitatiivien ja induktiivinen perustuen kirjallisuuskatsaukseen sekä soveltuviin tapaustutkimuksiin Suomessa ja Taiwanissa. Väitöskirja koostuu viidestä tutkimusartikkelista ja niiden synteesinä laaditusta kirjasta. Väitöskirjan päätulokset sisältävät yksityiskohtaisia löydöksiä tukemaan ekosysteemin määrittämistä ja rajaamista. Ekosysteemin muodostuminen laajentaa aiempia tutkimustuloksia ekosysteemin evoluutiosta. Ankkuri- ja moderaattoritoimijoiden roolit täydentävät ekosysteemi roolivalikoimaa ja tukevat suunnittelua. Arviointimallit tarjoavat lähtökohdat sekä akateemiseen, että käytännölliseen liiketoimintaekosysteemin tilan arviontiin.

Introduction: During the last years power have been passed from the producer to the consumer. Then, for any given firm, consumers play an increasingly important role. Firms sell not only within limits set by the price of competing products, but within limits set by buyers’ tastes as well. Both products and services have become more sophisticated and each individual customers value perception is important to recognize. In short, to stay competitive firms must put their main focus on the customer’s needs. When it comes to services producer and user must cooperate. Joint value creation process becomes a central part of the relationship between producer and user. The service production process in consulting-related services occurs during a relatively long period of time with various interchanges before the service ultimately is produced. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to understand how customers, in a business-to-business situation, perceive the value of a complex service over time. Focus will also be directed towards understanding how the producer can improve the knowledge of how the customers’ preferences change over time. Method: A qualitative case study was conducted, in which the customers of the case firm were interviewed. Conclusions: The major difficulty with the notion of value is that it is evaluated in the eyes of the beholder. That is, what it ultimately comes down to are subjective feelings and opinions of individuals. Nevertheless, this study shows that value perceived becomes more complex with time. That is, experiences from both the relationship and the joint value creation affect how customers perceive value. With time, customers are able to see more benefits, but at the same time more sacrifices. These tend to be relation-oriented.

<p>Introduction: During the last years power have been passed from the producer to the consumer. Then, for any given firm, consumers play an increasingly important role. Firms sell not only within limits set by the price of competing products, but within limits set by buyers’ tastes as well. Both products and services have become more sophisticated and each individual customers value perception is important to recognize. In short, to stay competitive firms must put their main focus on the customer’s needs. When it comes to services producer and user must cooperate. Joint value creation process becomes a central part of the relationship between producer and user. The service production process in consulting-related services occurs during a relatively long period of time with various interchanges before the service ultimately is produced. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to understand how customers, in a business-to-business situation, perceive the value of a complex service over time. Focus will also be directed towards understanding how the producer can improve the knowledge of how the customers’ preferences change over time. </p><p>Method: A qualitative case study was conducted, in which the customers of the case firm were interviewed. </p><p>Conclusions: The major difficulty with the notion of value is that it is evaluated in the eyes of the beholder. That is, what it ultimately comes down to are subjective feelings and opinions of individuals. Nevertheless, this study shows that value perceived becomes more complex with time. That is, experiences from both the relationship and the joint value creation affect how customers perceive value. With time, customers are able to see more benefits, but at the same time more sacrifices. These tend to be relation-oriented.</p>