The business ecosystem as a multiple dynamic network

The chapter analyses the Business Ecosystem metaphor through the lens of biological ecosystem theory. The biological metaphor of the Ecosystem is becoming attractive for scholars and managers. The first open question addressed in the chapter is related to the effectiveness of the ecosystem metaphor. If the ecosystem metaphor is strongly seductive and suggestive highlighting emerging organizational structures and behaviours, it is not clear whether we will be able to extend well known property of natural ecosystem to business environment. This leads to the second open question. The definition of an evolutionary model that supports a business ecosystem. In the business ecosystem perspective the key question is far from being related to firm selection and is strictly related with the path-dependent histories of co-evolving organizational forms. Padgett defines this (2000) as the emergence of organizational genotype (logic of identity) and the process of creation of organizational phenotype (through interaction with surrounding social networks).