As digitalization can improve an organisation’s sustainability performance, the literature calls for more research into the relationship between digitalization and the organisation’s portfolio of business models for sustainability (BMfS). This research addresses the role of the organisation’s ecosystem in this relationship. Building on an inductive analysis, we use the case of a proactive multinational company. An in-depth investigation, relying on an analysis of secondary data and interviews, reveals that the ecosystem plays different roles. Firstly, it acts to maintain a balance between the organization’s core business model (BM) and its emerging new BMfS that rely on digitalization. Additionally, it supports the optimization of the organization’s digital resources for its emerging new BMfS that rely on digitalization. Finally, it helps generate new value for the organization’s BMfS. We discuss the implications for practitioners in fostering partnerships to develop more BMfS, and create more environmental benefits through digitalization.

In the past decades, the Pharma/Biotech industry has experimented with many different partnerships, alliances, and joint venture configurations, which have included an array of health organizations. Simultaneously, many healthcare providers have privatized and created new forms of business acumen. In this chapter, the authors examine the case of a well-known American healthcare provider, a for-profit private firm, that establishes various alliances and then acquires the “best” entity, often based on positively collaborative, long-term relations. The healthcare provider in this case aims to set the leading edge for new products and services, yet this group of actors is often set aside in Pharma/Biotech M&A analyses. As keepers of medical knowledge, and as gatekeepers for many pharma and biotech products, we argue that the role of healthcare organizations in the USA is changing and requires further consideration.

Through establishing ecosystems around core technologies or products and fostering growth through investments in startups, internet platform companies make substantial contributions to the global economy. These investments often involve corporate venture capital (CVC) initiatives that support value creation. Firms must, therefore, account for the objectives of these initiatives, which aim to ensure value creation for business ecosystems, particularly in emerging markets such as China. This study presents a product-platform-ecosystem model derived from a case study of Tencent, a leading Chinese internet platform company. It analyzes seven strategic objectives of Tencent’s venture capital activities that directly influence value creation in its business ecosystem. The analysis reveals howthe strategic objectives underpinning CVC activities contribute to the value creation of platform ecosystems. The proposed value creation paradigm for internet platform ecosystems provides new insights into this rapidly growing market and offers guidelines for business managers and policymakers.