E-Commerce Platforms as Service Ecosystems

For several years, the attention that management scholars have been dedicating to the concept of service ecosystem is characterized by a growing trend. However, many contributions dedicated to the theme are purely theoretical, absolutely important but, perhaps, not sufficient to allow a more adequate "metabolization" of the logic underlying service ecosystems. To this aim, this work represents the logic of service ecosystems in a real context, providing a concrete example of how the service ecosystem view can be declined within e-commerce. In the observational perspective offered by S-DL, it is possible to imagine ecommerce as a service ecosystem in which the engagement of the numerous players who exchange all kinds of resources favors the activation of value co-creation processes. In each e-commerce platform, in fact, transactions involve different categories of players (such as website owners, managers, developers, other competing platforms, linked platforms, warehouse owners, transporters, end users and so on). Furthermore, the work offers a conceptualization of e-commerce as a service ecosystem consisting of three nested observational levels, Micro-, Meso-, and Macro-, each one with its own specificities. The rereading of ecommerce in the service ecosystems perspective provides important insights from a dual viewpoint, both theoretical and practical: regarding the first aspect, the work is configured as an absolute novelty in the literature, as it provides an original reinterpretation of e-commerce according to the observational perspective of service ecosystems; with regard to managerial hints, the paper takes shape as a conceptual basis for the definition and implementation of strategies aimed at optimizing the engagement of the plurality of actors that crowds e-commerce platforms.

Keywords: Service ecosystem; Service-Dominant Logic (S-DL); E-commerce; E-commerce platform; Business to Consumer (B2C); Business to Business (B2B); Business to Government (B2G); Consumer to Consumer (C2C); Consumer to Business (C2B); Consumer to Administration (C2G).