Digitalization and regional ecosystems: Traditional and digital actors beyond global value chains

Abstract

Different approaches focused on international issues have traditionally been used to analyze regional dynamics, especially the Global Value Chain approach. However, they do not capture the complexity of the new digital context, which includes new actors that do not participate directly in the value chain. The widespread adoption of digital technologies has reinforced the importance of Ecosystems Theory for understanding value chain transformation in terms of the development of new digital activities and firms. Under Ecosystems Theory, this study explores the network structure and roles of established industrial actors and emerging digital ones in a digital ecosystem. Based on a qualitative case study of a traditional European automotive industry region, the results indicate that the different actors form a relational structure, which allows this network to be interpreted as an ecosystem. Although the density of linkages is low, this does not imply low ecosystem cohesion, but rather that the linkages are selective. Modularity and the identification of two communities suggest that the ecosystem is organized into two blocks focused on each of the digital outputs (digital start-ups and new digital activities). Entrepreneurial traditional actors, university research institutes, the technological center, and the cluster related to digital technologies occupy a central position in each block with a high connectivity capacity with firms. Public administrations play the role of funders and equity participators, while scientific parks and traditional cluster act as integrators for firms into existing networks.