Business as usual? On the nature of relationships in enterprise software platform ecosystems

To obtain measurable benefit from an ecosystem, partners need to overcome the challenges they face when they join. This research aims to provide insight into whether partners are influenced by the keystone through power forms and how the partners perceive these influences. Subsequently, this research identifies possible perceived software ecosystem benefits and disadvantages that these partners experience after joining. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with both a keystone company and multiple partners within a single ecosystem. The most frequently observed power forms are reward and legitimate power. Finally, various SECO benefits and disadvantages have been identified for each partner. Thus, this research contributes to an improved understanding of partner-keystone dynamics within a single software ecosystem and provides insights beneficial to the industry.