Next Generation Business Ecosystems: Engineering Decentralized Markets, Self-Sovereign Identities and Tokenization

Digital transformation research increasingly shifts from studying information systems within organizations towards adopting an ecosystem perspective, where multiple actors co-create value. While digital platforms have become a ubiquitous phenomenon in consumer-facing industries, organizations remain cautious about fully embracing the ecosystem concept and sharing data with external partners. Concerns about the market power of platform orchestrators and ongoing discussions on privacy, individual empowerment, and digital sovereignty further complicate the widespread adoption of business ecosystems, particularly in the European Union. In this context, technological innovations in Web3, including blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies, have emerged as potential catalysts for disrupting centralized gatekeepers and enabling a strategic shift towards user-centric, privacy-oriented next-generation business ecosystems. However, existing research efforts focus on decentralizing interactions through distributed network topologies and open protocols lack theoretical convergence, resulting in a fragmented and complex landscape that inadequately addresses the challenges organizations face when transitioning to an ecosystem strategy that harnesses the potential of disintermediation. To address these gaps and successfully engineer next-generation business ecosystems, a comprehensive approach is needed that encompasses the technical design, economic models, and socio-technical dynamics. This dissertation aims to contribute to this endeavor by exploring the implications of Web3 technologies on digital innovation and transformation paths. Drawing on a combination of qualitative and quantitative research, it makes three overarching contributions: First, a conceptual perspective on \u27tokenization\u27 in markets clarifies its ambiguity and provides a unified understanding of the role in ecosystems. This perspective includes frameworks on: (a) technological; (b) economic; and (c) governance aspects of tokenization. Second, a design perspective on \u27decentralized marketplaces\u27 highlights the need for an integrated understanding of micro-structures, business structures, and IT infrastructures in blockchain-enabled marketplaces. This perspective includes: (a) an explorative literature review on design factors; (b) case studies and insights from practitioners to develop requirements and design principles; and (c) a design science project with an interface design prototype of blockchain-enabled marketplaces. Third, an economic perspective on \u27self-sovereign identities\u27 (SSI) as micro-structural elements of decentralized markets. This perspective includes: (a) value creation mechanisms and business aspects of strategic alliances governing SSI ecosystems; (b) business model characteristics adopted by organizations leveraging SSI; and (c) business model archetypes and a framework for SSI ecosystem engineering efforts. The dissertation concludes by discussing limitations as well as outlining potential avenues for future research. These include, amongst others, exploring the challenges of ecosystem bootstrapping in the absence of intermediaries, examining the make-or-join decision in ecosystem emergence, addressing the multidimensional complexity of Web3-enabled ecosystems, investigating incentive mechanisms for inter-organizational collaboration, understanding the role of trust in decentralized environments, and exploring varying degrees of decentralization with potential transition pathways

Shaping Governance in Self-Sovereign Identity Ecosystems: Towards a Cooperative Business Model

The Internet has undoubtedly created great opportunities for consumers. With the digitalization wave breaking, Single Sign-On services emerged that satisfy the desire for seamless online journeys and provide users with their digital identities. On a global scale, oligopoly structures evolved where tech giants primarily manage digital identities and personal data. Conversely, recent developments stemmed from the desire for data privacy, digital sovereignty, and self-determination, both from the user perspective and legislature. In line with recent discussions, this study focuses on Self-Sovereign Identity, a new paradigm that promises independence from intermediary identity providers. We follow an appeal for further research on business aspects and strategic alliances and adopt an exploratory research approach with semi-structured interviews. We identify cooperatives as suitable to govern Self-Sovereign Identity Ecosystems, shape their business model along Al-Debei and Avison’s V4 Business Model dimensions, and outline paths for future inquiries

Giant or Dwarf? A Literature Review on Blockchain-enabled Marketplaces in Business Ecosystems

While advocates argue for the disruptive impact of marketplace business models and Blockchain in various regards, their practical effects on today\u27s organizations are still limited.This study reviews the current body of literature on Blockchain-enabled Marketplaces in Business Ecosystems, outlines present scopes, and disregarded topics. Our review shows that publications predominantly focus on conceptual models that favor Blockchain-for-all-solutions and neglect several fundamental marketplace dimensions. We raise a critical voice regarding the status quo and outline paths for future research

Requirements and Design Principles for Blockchain-enabled Matchmaking-Marketplaces in Additive Manufacturing

Blockchain-enabled marketplaces offer considerable potential for cross-company networks. The area of additive manufacturing appears particularly promising. However, the practical impact of business-to-business marketplaces in today’s organizations are still scarce, and academic literature contains limited design guidelines. Synthesizing knowledge from literature, practice, and qualitative expert interviews, our study explores 27 mandatory requirements, six optional requirements, and 12 design principles

Developing Blockchain-enabled Marketplace Interfaces: A Design Science Research Study

Digital transformation\u27s scope evolves from being limited to the organizational level to inter-organizational collaboration in supply chain networks and business ecosystems. Blockchain-enabled marketplaces have the potential to transform business networks by eliminating intermediaries. To investigate the interface design and visualization of blockchain-enabled marketplaces, we employed a design science methodology and synthesized knowledge from literature, practice, and qualitative expert interviews. Our research provides (1) theoretically grounded and prescriptive knowledge expressed in meta-requirements and design principles inspired by effective use theory, and (2) presents concrete design features and an expository prototype instantiation. The prototype is evaluated through focus group workshops and interviews with experts and potential users. Our work contributes to recent calls to investigate the design and visualization of blockchain-enabled marketplaces, advances research on blockchain applications in B2B contexts, and expands the literature on information system design for marketplace-oriented transformations

Enterprise Business Models Leveraging Self-Sovereign Identity: Towards a User-Empowering Me2X Economy

The Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) paradigm aims to transition online identity silos exhibiting privacy issues to user-controlled sharing mechanisms. While various governments back and promote its development, business models often play a subordinate role in these efforts. Building on academic literature and practical projects, our study addresses this and contributes a taxonomy of business enabled by SSI with 12 dimensions, 9 sub-dimensions, and 51 characteristics