Enabling the mapping of internet of things ecosystem business models through roles and activities in value co-creation

The increasing connectivity provided by the Internet of Things (IoT) supports novel business opportunities for actors’ overlapping service systems. Therefore, the co-creative nature of IoT business needs to be further studied. This paper contributes to the understudied area of IoT ecosystem dynamics by reporting an empirical study on a European IoT initiative and describing different actor roles and activities in the IoT use cases, and their implications for IoT ecosystem value creation. The paper shows how IoT ecosystem actors may take the roles of Ideator, Designer, or Intermediary in different design layers, and, recommends this approach to better understand and describe ecosystem business models. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.