Ecosystem Selection Criteria and Implications: A Conjoint Experiment of Ecosystem Partners’ Decision-Making

Abstract The business ecosystem literature suggests that orchestrators must attract partners by offering a competitive partner value proposition (PVP). Despite the importance of attracting sufficient partners, PVP elements have only been viewed through the orchestrator’s lens. No study has addressed the decision process of partners or asked how they choose an ecosystem with which to cooperate. We address this gap through a choice-based conjoint analysis based on actual screening decisions of partner facilities in German sports aggregation ecosystems. We explore partner preferences and the attributes that constitute their decisions, documenting obstacles to ecosystem thinking, heterogeneous preferences among partners, and the need for a more differentiated view of ecosystem network effects. Our findings contribute to the understanding of partners’ decision processes and have implications for orchestrators in developing competitive PVPs.