Your app is no longer welcome in our app store: partner exclusion in software ecosystems

Software ecosystems are sets of interdependent actors that collaboratively interact with a shared market for software and services. In commercial software ecosystems, there is typically a platform that is managed by one central software producing organization. Subsequently, the central organization orchestrates the partners that wish to be part of the software ecosystem. As the relationship between the orchestrator and the partner matures, the platform orchestrator runs into new challenges: how should partners be rewarded in the software ecosystem for their good behavior and punished for any bad behavior, with removal from the ecosystem as its most drastic step? In this work we focus on partner evaluation and exclusion by conducting a set of exploratory theory building interviews with partner managers working at these software platform orchestrators. Our findings indicate that exclusion of partners in practice involves the removal of resources and funding. In the case of technology partners, orchestrators typically remove these resources by restricting access to app stores or technical resources. For business partners, exclusion involves the loss of support from commercial resources or revenue streams derived from contracts.