Haier: ecosystem leadership

Purpose Given their immense value-creating potential, ecosystems?and whether to build, buy, or join one?have become a top agenda item in boardrooms around the world. Design/methodology/approach Haier, a highly successful Chinese multinational corporation has developed an effective set of practices for managing an emergent, ecosystem-based business model. Findings The Haier case illuminates the unique challenges of leading a sprawling, ecosystem-based enterprise that must continually evolve. Practical/implications Haier employees fall into three categories? platform owners, microenterprise owners and entrepreneurs. Originality/value As a strategic innovator, Haier grouped its independent microenterprises into “Ecosystem Micro-Communities” (ECMs) of loosely connected, multi-disciplinary capability clusters organized around end users.