Dynamic capabilities (DCs) refer to a firm's abilities to continuously
adapt its resource base in order to respond to changes in its external
environment. The capability to change dynamically is crucial in business
ecosystems that are composed of a variety of actors. Amazon Web Services
(AWS), the leader in the cloud platform industry, is a promising cloud
platform provider (CPP) to show a high degree of dynamic capability
fulfillment within its highly fluctuating ecosystem. To date, the full
scope of dynamic capabilities in cloud platform ecosystems (CPEs) has
not been fully understood. Previous work has failed to deliver a
combined perspective of explicit dynamic capabilities in cloud platform
ecosystems applied on an in-depth practical case. With our mixed-method
case study on the AWS ecosystem we deliver a thorough understanding of
its sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities. We generate a set of
strategy management frameworks that support our expectations and lead to
unexpected insights. We find out that AWS develops and holds a large set
of interacting dynamic capabilities incorporating a variety of ecosystem
actors in order to sustain tremendous customer value and satisfaction.
The thesis infers significant theoretical and practical implications for
all CPE actors, like partners, customers, investors and researchers in
the field of IT strategy management. Managers of all CPE actors are
encouraged to critically evaluate their own maturity level and
complement a CPP's DC explications in order to boost business by
implementing sensing, seizing, transforming and innovating capabilities.
