Sensing the Metaverse : (The Microfoundations of Complementor Firms' Dynamic Sensing Capabilities in Emerging-Technology Ecosystems)

Dynamic capabilities allow firms to adapt to rapidly changing environments, such as digital business ecosystems (DBEs) based on emerging technologies. Here, non-focal firms face specific challenges, since they have little leverage over the ecosystems in which they operate. In the case of the metaverse – which can be conceptualised as a series of emerging-technology-based DBEs – dynamic sensing capabilities (DSCs) are particularly important for grasping this potentially vast albeit vague opportunity. Our explorative study of 14 virtual reality companies operating in Germany operationalises the microfoundations of these DSCs. Based on 25 interviews with commercial and technical top management executives, we introduce taxonomic differentiation and explore the impact of size/resource base and business model/market type (B2B/B2C) on DSCs. We find that productive opportunism and bricolage behaviour allow non-focal firms to navigate the sheer complexity of the environment. Social screening helps to unlock tacit knowledge as do knowledge-creating routines such as technical experimentation and co-creation (with customers, suppliers and even competitors). Furthermore, our findings enlarge the understanding of DBEs as not horizontally competing but as being organised in a downstream–upstream relationship. Moreover, we find that (commercially oriented) opportunity screening is closely and crucially linked with dynamic seizing capabilities (e.g. customer-driven prototyping and business model development).