Ecosystem Evaluations in Business Development

Abstract

It is vital for companies wanting to develop their business internationally to understand their position in the market. They have to understand the relations to existing and prospective customers as well as to suppliers, governments or even competitors and many other players. These relations influence the competitive situation of each single player who is involved in a certain industry. Products and the parts needed to produce these as well as supporting services or infrastructural prerequisites are the artefacts that the different players provide. All of them are interrelated and ultimately aim at fulfilling customer needs. These interrelations and interdependencies can be described and analysed with the model of need-driven-ecosystems. The model helps to evaluate the ecosystem itself as well as the as-is situation of a company. It may also be used to describe scenarios for future developments which can help to prepare business decisions when going abroad.