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How ESL Devices Transform into Connected Label Solutions: A Perspective of Actor Interaction and
Information Rebundling

propositions in the ecosystem.
2.3 Multi-Level Effect of Digital Transformation: Individual Actor to Ecosystem
As a structuring element for all business models, the ecosystem connects different
firms and organizations through an interdependent network to acknowledge value

propositions (Adner, 2017; Jacobides, Cennamo, and Gawer, 2018). Structurally, a view
of the ecosystem also emphasizes a breakdown of industry boundaries to include an
array of interdependent actors. The multiple dependencies of actors in an ecosystem are

rooted at the micro level, where actors interact with focal objects (Alexander, Jaakkola,
and Hollebeek, 2018), but are also embedded at higher levels. They create network
embeddedness that can serve as a more proximate and accessible stimulus for ecosystem
research.
In the initial formulation, this notion of embeddedness emerged after Granovetter

(1985) observes how economic activity would reside in the network. Then, a robust effect
of economic activity in the context of an interfirm network is revealed. An interfirm
network captures the contingent aspect of an economic actor’s operations while being

embedded in a larger social framework. Alternatively, it refers to the contextualization of
economic activity in ongoing patterns of social interaction. More specifically, the structure
of the more extensive network of relationships in which the actor is embedded influences
economic actions and results in addition to an actor’s particular relationships with other
actors (such as a more extensive network). Economic behaviors are woven into the

network of relationships that serve as a proxy for economic activities.
One of the characteristics of network embeddedness is the quality of relationships
among organizations and the architecture of network ties, called “structural embeddedness”

(Choi and Kim, 2008). It is primarily concerned with how the quality and network design
of material and information-trade linkages influence economic activities (Choi and Kim,
2008; Granovetter, 1985). In the context of the interdependency of ecosystem actors,
actor relationships can arrange relationship networks, providing unique access to diverse
resources, including knowledge, expertise, and technologies (Vargo and Akaka, 2012;

Vargo, Akaka, and Vaughan, 2017). Structurally, the ecosystem can provide a valuable
impression of how socio-technical activities might influence diverse actors in multi-level
dependencies.

Digital transformation as a socio-technical activity transcends organizational

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