L03 A: Ansari, S. S., Garud, R., & Kumaraswamy, A. (2016). The disruptor's dilemma: TiVo and the US television ecosystem.

Question 1

Coopetition:

Answer 1

The presence of simultaneous forces for cooperation and competition.

Question 2

Definition Industry ecosystems:

Answer 2

Business networks of interconnected firms that depend on one another for their mutual effectiveness and survival.

• Producers from the supply side
• Distribution channels
• Consumers from the demand side
• Regulators and other interested stakeholders from the institutional side

Question 3

Disruptor’s dilemma:

Answer 3

Disruptors risk retaliation from incumbent firms potentially disrupted by the innovation, but may need the support of these very incumbents to establish their innovation within the existing ecosystem.

Underlying this dilemma are conflicting pressures on disruptors to both cooperate and compete with other firms.

Question 4

Coopetitive tensions and challenges in disrupting existing ecosystem:

Answer 4

(1) Intertemporal co-opetition (short vs. long term):
a situation in which a newcomer’s innovation can offer ecosystem benefits that might materialize only in the future whereas the innovation’s disruptive effects are felt immediately.

(2) Dyadic coopetition (within dyadic relationships = between firms).
Find the champions of innovations within the organizations to partner with.

(3) Multilateral coopetition (across relationships spanning multiple dyads or multiple ecosystem sides).

Question 5

The writers theorize how:

Answer 5

(1) disruption may affect not just specifc incumbents, but also the entire ecosystem;

(2) coopetition is not just dyadic, but also multilateral and intertemporal

(3) strategy is both a deliberative and emergent process involving continual adjustments, as the disruptor attempts to balance coopetitive tensions

Question 6

Explain how strategy is both a deliberative and emergent process

Answer 6

Strategy is both a deliberative and emergent process involving continual adjustments, as the disruptor attempts to balance coopetitive tensions, over time disruptor employs mix of soft power and hard power.

Soft power: the exercise of social skills to generate desired outcomes.

Hard power: the use of threats, sanctions, or other coercive strategies to secure compliance.

Question 7

Positioning

Answer 7

Eventually, as the ecosystem evolves to accommodate the innovation, the disruptor can shift its relational positioning from that of a value destroyer to a value creator, and thereby convert “headwinds” to “tailwinds.”