Bio-mimetic deconstruction of the digital business ecosystem

Abstract

The advent of the Internet Plus era, digital technologies, and the digital economy has instigated profound transformations in the commercial landscape, particularly evident in the systematic reshaping of the Digital Business Ecosystem (DBE), encompassing innovations in business models, norms of commercial conduct, and the exploration of business value. This paper delves into the panoramic view of digital business operations of typical companies to uncover the fundamental structural framework of digital commerce. Through deductive reasoning and drawing upon the theoretical framework of natural niche, we construct a niche model for the digital business ecosystem, thereby achieving a bionic deconstruction of the digital business ecosystem. The significance of this research lies in offering a novel research perspective for enterprises, economic regulatory bodies, and scholars in the field of business management, proposing a systemic approach rooted in niche theory models to competition. This approach provides a fresh theoretical framework for enterprises to devise their own ecological and sustainable development strategies. The key findings are as follows: (1) Most business firms establish competitive advantages by constructing commercial cloud platforms that facilitate internal digital transformation and enable digital synergy with external economic entities; (2) Within the digital business ecosystem, enterprises extend their digital capabilities externally through four modalities: data development, data application, data services, and data manufacturing. Externally, six primary forces and roles shape the ecosystem: suppliers, governments, social institutions, consumers, as well as external and internal industry players; (3) The digital business niche is a multidimensional and hyper volumetric relationship positioning between enterprises and the digital business environment. The niche factors include six dimensions: market, personnel, resources, social relationships, technology, and institutions; (4) Given limited ecological factors, the non-exclusivity between static resource allocation and dynamic technological investments in digital enablement leads to the generalization of property rights boundaries and industrial values within the digital business ecosystem. Consequently, this fosters extensive business applications and diversified business models, thereby resulting in less competition and more cooperation, symbiosis, and complementarity within the digital business niche.