Every business ecosystem develops in four distinct stages: birth, expansion, leadership, and self-renewal—or, if not self-renewal, death.
In reality, of course, the evolutionary stages blur, and the managerial challenges of one stage often crop up in another.
"A business ecosystem is a purposeful business arrangement between two or more entities (the members) to create and share in collective value for a common set of customers.
Every business ecosystem has participants, and at least one member acts as the orchestrator of the participants.
Ecosystem life cycle
Moore (1993) suggests that innovation ecosystems progress through four life cycle phases: birth, expansion, leadership, and self-renewal (or death).