Veranstaltungsprogramm der VHB Jahrestagung

Ecosystem identity – the mutual understanding of the central, enduring, and distinctive features of an ecosystem value proposition – is key to the growth of incumbent ecosystems. It is established by ecosystem orchestrators through framing tactics. However, little is known about how orchestrators frame to strengthen ecosystem identity when facing new rivals. We address this gap with a longitudinal qualitative study of a European carmaker whose location-based mobility services ecosystem was challenged by Google. The carmaker deployed distinct framing tactics – straightening up, future-proofing, and valorising – each time incumbents questioned the ecosystem’s future. In doing so, the carmaker gradually revitalized the identity and continued the growth of its ecosystem while other carmakers abandoned their own respective ecosystems in favour of Google. Based on these findings, we advance a process model for strengthening the identity of incumbent ecosystems after new rival entry. We contribute to research on ecosystems and the framing literature.

Organizational identity as shared understandings of “who we are as an organization” (Gioia et al., 2013) is crucial to real utopias. As oftentimes fluid collectives, real utopias develop “the vision of future alternatives […]” while also being “rooted in the potentialities of the present” (Gümüsay & Reinecke, 2022, pp. 237–238). This present-future orientation renders the formation of an organizational identity challenging for them: How do members come to a shared understanding of “who they are” when they cannot rely on a shared past, and when desirable futures are open to negotiation? Whereas organizational identity change “from A to B” is well-studied, organizational identity formation “from nothing to something” is less well understood (Gioia et al., 2013), and typically studied in sequential fashion. This leaves us with an incomplete understanding of organizational identity formation in real utopias. Understanding this process is important for shedding light on the temporal dynamics in organizational identity formation.

In this paper, we explore how members of a real utopia form an organizational identity using the case of “Utopia”, an emerging center for social and sustainable entrepreneurship. Based on extensive data collection, starting in 2021, we develop a model of the process of organizational identity formation at a real utopia. Our study shows how this process is shaped by, first, the context of the founder’s identity and reputation, the shared aspirations for a better world and identity uncertainty. Second, this process is strongly shaped by three practices of mobilizing utopias, namely demarcating, prioritizing and reifying. With our study, we contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how real utopias engage with the future. More generally, we contribute to a more processual understanding of organizational identity formation, including its starting point, demonstrating that the formation process does not start “from nothing”, but from a rich context.