It Takes Two to Tango

Business ecosystems have emerged as an increasingly popular and powerful mode of inter-firm collaborations. As such, business ecosystems are highly complex forms of joint value creation and capture activities between actors who, while partly loosely connected, depend on one another. Building on a combination of stakeholder and paradox theories, this chapter provides insights into two emerging paradox tensions: (1) The ecosystem engagement paradox (balancing the diverging interests of the focal firm and the overall ecosystem); and (2) the ecosystem coopetition paradox (balancing competition and cooperation with other ecosystem actors). This view allows displaying the complementary nature of both theoretical perspectives and their joint contribution to the ecosystem context. Further, by identifying two paradox tensions inherent to the business ecosystem context, this chapter offers insights for managers on how to engage in business ecosystem and how to deal with ecosystem competitiveness.