Building sustainable business ecosystems through customer participation: A lesson from South Korean cases

A sustainable business ecosystem is a source of competitiveness for firms as well as a manageable resource for gaining a competitive advantage. Strategy from the perspective of business ecosystems is particularly critical for the conglomerate or government-driven Asia pacific business environment. Among members of business ecosystems, this study focuses on customers, whose roles are overlooked in existing studies as an agent of building a sustainable business ecosystem. This study examines effects of customer participation on creating economic value and social value within the business ecosystem by conducting in-depth interviews with multiple firms in South Korea. Based on the interview data, this study develops seven propositions for the relationships between customer participation and a sustainable business ecosystem. Then, the study proposes alignment, systemization, socialization, and coevolution as four strategic actions for building sustainable business ecosystems. Also, this study offers result area of the strategic actions as the accumulation of both economic value and social value for both firms and the society. Implications based on these strategic actions and the result areas are suggested for academics and practitioners.