Exploring the Process of Business Ecosystem Emergence from Value Chains: Insights from the Chinese Mobile Phone Industry

ABSTRACT A business ecosystem is a community of multiple co-evolving actors with interdependent product offerings organized around a specific value proposition. While the extant literature focuses on these two structural elements of ecosystems that existed ex ante, we challenge this notion with our core discovery that ecosystem actors emerge in an ex post dynamic process. With a longitudinal qualitative study of the vertically disintegrated part of the Chinese mobile phone industry, we develop a two-dimensional process model of ecosystem emergence, namely the temporal dimension that delineates three processal stages of ecosystem emergence and the spatial dimension that highlights an architectural pattern of reciprocities between value chain and resource pool to enable the ecosystem emergence. We also offer inter-temporal enabling conditions during ecosystem evolution. These findings enable us to complement the ecosystem literature by elaborating the antecedents, outcomes, and enabling conditions of ecosystem emergence in relation to multiple types of ecosystem actors. We also shed light on the value chain (re-)configuring process which derives from the reciprocity between value chains and ecosystem resources.

Predator cue-induced plasticity of morphology and behavior in planthoppers facilitate the survival from predation

Predators can induce phenotypic plasticity in prey through selection driven by predation risk. However, defense plasticity is rarely reported in insects, let alone trans-generational plasticity, meaning the mechanisms underlying plasticity, how it impacts ecosystem evolution and how it might be exploited in pest control are poorly understood. Here we examine the morphological plasticity of small brown planthoppers (SBPHs), Laodelphax striatellus, elicited by caged predators, Paederus fuscipes in the parent or F1 generation and reveal the risk cues mediating these effects. We also uncover the survival outcomes in SBPHs with predator-induced defensive morphological traits by examining their survival probability and behavioral plasticity. Results showed that caged predators or predator odor cue gave rise to a higher proportion of long-winged, female SBPHs in the parent and F1 generations, but the proportion of males and their wing length were unaffected. The visual cue from predators elicited weaker effects. Surprisingly, we discovered these long-winged forms suffered a lower predation rate when attacked by P. fuscipes, owing to an enhanced agility level. Our results suggest the within- and trans-generational plasticity of induced defenses may cause profound effects on SBPH population dynamics and prey-predator interaction. Understanding this interaction and its underlying mechanisms illuminates important aspects of ecosystem evolution and helps predict pest dispersal or migration, which in turn may be exploited for pest control.

Effects of climate change on a subtropical montane peatland over the last two centuries: Evidence from diatom records

Climate variability can induce rapid changes in peatland ecosystems, affecting both carbon cycling and vegetation succession. Diatoms are an important group of ubiquitous and diverse algae in peatlands. Until now, the responses of diatom communities to climate variability have rarely been explored in peatlands, especially in subtropical regions. In this study, monitoring and paleolimnological datasets were combined to decipher environmental changes of a subtropical montane peatland (central China) over the last two centuries. Seasonal monitoring data revealed that diatom communities were closely correlated with precipitation, depth to the water table, conductivity, nitrate and temperature. Sedimentary records revealed that temporal changes in diatom assemblages and geochemical elements displayed similar trends in two peat cores after the 1950s. The first gradient in diatom composition represented a shift from Pinnularia species to taxa preferring less-acidic habitats, which was closely linked to climate warming and the enrichment of inorganic elements (e.g. sodium and calcium) since the early 20th century. Meanwhile, changes in diatom communities were further related to precipitation variability, atmospheric deposition and local hydrogeomophic setting. Taken together, the succession of diatom communities was closely linked to climate-regulated availability of nutrients and moisture in this subtropical peatland over the last two centuries. In order to achieve sustainable management of these scarce peatlands, further biological monitoring and paleoecological studies are needed to improve our knowledge of peatland ecosystem evolution in response to future climate change.

Toward an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Research Program

Entrepreneurial ecosystems have become a prominent concept, yet in its current state, the concept itself represents a paradox. While it draws on a rich intellectual history and provides an opportunity to synthesize different strands of research, it is also under-theorized and the mechanisms that govern ecosystem evolution are not well understood. This paper takes stock of recent advancements in ecosystem scholarship and synthesizes the empirical reality of the causal mechanisms. We use these dynamics to position ecosystems in a broader context, within and beyond the domain of entrepreneurship research, and propose a transdisciplinary research program for ecosystem research and practice.

MEMBERANTAS KEJAHATAN ATAS SATWA LIAR: REFLEKSI ATAS PENEGAKAN HUKUM UNDANG-UNDANG NOMOR 5 TAHUN 1990

AbstrakKejahatan atas satwa liar merupakan kejahatan yang bersifat transnasional dan terorganisasi yang telah mengakibatkan dampak negatif terhadap ekosistem Indonesia. Perkembangan kejahatan atas satwa liar yang saat ini juga merupakan kejahatan teroganisasi, lintas negara dan berbasis elektronik, membuat Undang-Undang Nomor 5 Tahun 1990 tidak lagi efektif dan telah gagal untuk mengatasinya. Kegagalan ini salah satunya disebabkan oleh rendahnya sanksi pidana yang diatur dalam Undang-Undang Nomor 5 Tahun 1990. Pada tataran praktek, rendahnya tuntutan Penuntut Umum dan putusan Majelis Hakim membuat tidak adanya efek jera bagi pelaku kejahatan atas satwa liar. Tulisan ini membahas secara spesifik mengenai perkembangan kejahatan atas satwa liar dan kegagalan penegakan hukum atasnya. Tulisan ini juga memberikan masukan konstruktif untuk perbaikan Undang-Undang Nomor 5 Tahun 1990 sebagai sarana untuk memberantas kejahatan atas satwa liar di Indonesia. AbstractWildlife Crime is a transnational and organized crime that has given the negative impact for Indonesia’s ecosystem. Evolution of wildlife crime as organized crime, transnational crime, and cyber crime makes Law No. 5 Year 1990 ineffective and has failed to combat it. This failure is caused by the lack of criminal sanction in Law No. 5 Year 1990. In the implementation, low of demand and verdict by prosecutor and judge couldn’t give the deterrent effect for the criminal. This paper discusses specifically about evolution of wildlife crime modus and the failure of law enforcement. This paper also gives input to revise Law No. 5 Year 1990 for combating wildlife crime in Indonesian context.

Continental scientific drilling: A game changer for understanding ecosystem evolution in Africa

<p>Over the past 20 years a series of scientific drilling campaigns around Africa have yielded exciting new information about the evolutionary ecological history of that continent. Most of these records have come from highly resolved lacustrine deposits with rapid sedimentation rates, and primarily, though not exclusively, have come from the East African Rift Valley, spanning the last ~3.5Ma. Important insights about both lacustrine and terrestrial ecosystem evolution have emerged, including ones with implications for the ecological context of human evolution. During the transition from the Late Pliocene warm period into the Quaternary, phytoliths, charcoal, pollen and leaf wax records are reshaping our understanding of fine scale structure of landscape vegetation transformation, and the implications these changes had for resources and cover that mammals (including early hominins) relied upon.  Pleistocene drill core paleoecological records from Lake Malawi have provided evidence for transformations of that lake’s ecosystem, including water column mixing, transparency and nutrient recycling, that help explain the explosive phylogenetic radiation of that lake’s extraordinary endemic cichlid fish fauna. And high-resolution records from that same lake spanning the time of the ~75ka Toba super-eruption allow us to test and falsify hypotheses linking volcanic activity to wholesale transformation of the African ecosystem, including purported links to modern human population bottlenecks. These valuable archives will in the future be complemented by even longer records from Africa’s oldest lake, L. Tanganyika, allowing us to build a comprehensive picture of African ecosystem evolution extending back to the late Miocene.</p>