In business ecosystems, the final product is assembled by the customer from various components.

As a result, the relationships within the ecosystem can’t be simplified to a series of independent, two-party interactions. Instead, these relationships are multilateral and interconnected, forming chains of dependencies.

For example, the success of the relationship between companies A and B may depend on how well company B collaborates with company C.

Therefore the companies need to balance cooperation (value creation) and competition (value capture).