Grow Your Partners to Grow Yourself: a Partner Management Framework for Software Ecosystems

Abstract

Partner management concerns the use of partner capabilities to meet customer demand. SECO Orchestrators have little insight in the governance tools available to them and, because of this fail, to attract or maintain partnerships.

This research creates a classification for partner management activities to aid orchestrators in creating partnerships. We contribute (1) a method of establishing frameworks, consisting of a literature review, framework creation and case study validation, (2) the partner management framework that clarifies the effects of partner management on the ecosystem and partners, and (3) a classification of knowledge and activities regarding partner management.