Author: Christian Betz

Christian Betz is a PhD student at CC Ecosystems. The focus of his research is on financial services in ecosystems and how innovative technologies, such as DLT, can be used supportively in ecosystems. Prior to joining the Business Engineering Institute, Christian worked for 4 years as a management consultant in digital strategy and digital transformation in banking and capital markets. He graduated in business administration with a focus on strategy and finance from EBS University in Oestrich-Winkel, Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Ant Group – The Brightest Star in the Ecosystem Sky?

Posted on By

37 billion US dollars. With this issue volume, Ant Group, formerly Ant Financial, a Chinese tech group created by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, was to be traded on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. Many see new value creation logics, so-called business ecosystems, which Ant Group is said to have developed for itself, as being behind the rapid growth and the extremely high company valuation. However, the assumption that Ant Group is an ecosystem should be treated with caution. In the following, we have analyzed individual platforms in more detail based on the work of the CC Ecosystem.

Continue reading »
0
All, Ecosystems

Food for Thought – Book Reviews and Reading List 2020

Posted on By

Another rather exciting year has passed, during which was able to advance some of my personal projects, among them being self-reflection. Reading books is one of the tools I use to reflect on my perspectives and to refine and adjust them, wherever I feel necessary. While I tried to tap into a diverse set of ideas and experiences during 2020, this article will present five highlights, hoping that some of the ideas I found most inspiring will provide some food for thought for you, as well.

Continue reading »
0
All

Strategy in an Age of Increasing Interconnectedness – Taking Stock (Part 2)

Posted on By

The examples of Alibaba, Amazon and Airbnb impressively demonstrate the value creation potential of ecosystems compared to traditional, linear value creation structures. But how do you plan and develop an ecosystem? As I explained in the first part of this blog post, traditional strategy concepts cannot be easily transferred to ecosystems. So what constitutes an ecosystem strategy? In the following, I will present three further prerequisites for the successful design of an ecosystem, which must be part of every discussion about building or participating in any ecosystem.

Continue reading »
0
All, Ecosystems

Strategy in an Age of Increasing Interconnectedness – Taking Stock (Part 1)

Posted on By

The term ecosystem strategy is very present in science and practice and numerous strategic recommendations for action, for example for taking on certain roles, can already be identified. However, a uniform understanding of the term or an overarching approach to building up or positioning oneself in ecosystems does not yet exist. In this blog post I try to approach the topic by identifying four prerequisites for the success of an ecosystem and by investigating the extent to which an ecosystem strategy differs from a classical corporate strategy.

Continue reading »
0
All, Ecosystems

Structuring Open Business Capabilities – A Structuring Approach for API Initiatives

Posted on By

APIs represent an important component of the digital transformation towards networked business models. This inevitably raises questions: Do I start by providing an API developer portal or an overall strategy? Which infrastructure components should be used and to what extent should I provide central guidelines? How can I prioritize possible activities? The “API House of Digital Business” provides assistance in answering these questions.

Continue reading »
0
All, Data, Digitization, Ecosystems, technologies