Investigating the strategic choices of business ecosystem orchestrators: evidence from sports aggregation ecosystems

Abstract The business ecosystem literature offers valuable insights into various strategic variables such as pricing, governance, and network effects. However, few studies holistically analyze how orchestrators—the core firms that motivate and coordinate the activities of ecosystem partners—combine strategic choices to develop an ecosystem value proposition and compete against other ecosystems in the same domain. Therefore, we conduct an inductive multiple case study of German sport aggregation platforms and their ecosystems. We explore competing platform strategies by identifying relevant strategic variables, documenting ecosystem-specific dynamics and challenges, identifying patterns in the combinations of strategic choices, and tracking the development of strategic variables over time. Our findings contribute to the understanding of ecosystem strategies and support research on the intersection of strategic management and business ecosystems.