Firms’ ecosystems: Developing a research programme

Managing a firm’s external environment involves considering not only relationships with economic partners, but also the influence of various elements of its ecosystem. In the article, we develop stages and methods for assessing the formation of an ecosystem based on a scientific review. The theoretical framework of the study is institutional economics and the concept of ecosystem. The method of system logical analysis was used. The research data are retrieved from scientific papers indexed in the global databases Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus in 2015–2022. Having analyzed the existing literature, we formulated the definition of a firm’s sustainable ecosystem interpreted as the external environment of a business entity with a comprehensive set of infrastructure elements, stable network interactions, the extensive use of digital technologies, the essential institutional support, and optimal transaction costs. In the formation of a firm’s sustainable ecosystem, there are five stages providing for the development of infrastructural, network, digital, institutional, and financial parameters of this system. These factors ensure the benefits of a sustainable ecosystem consisting in diverse economic activities, strong relationships, fast decision-making, stable strategic development, and reduced costs for maintaining the ecosystem. The novelty of the study lies in the systematization of the stages and methods for the formation of a firm’s sustainable ecosystem based on institutional economics, which adds to the existing methods for assessing business ecosystems. We have highlighted the avenues for further studies on expanding the toolkit for evaluating various aspects of a firm’s ecosystem functioning.