Establishing successful ecosystems for IIoT platforms and B2B business models

The aim of this paper is firstly to introduce the reader to the importance of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) ecosystems, secondly to encourage him to address the subject and thirdly to provide him with impulses for action. A technical focus has been deliberately avoided. The paper's basic assumption is that both the necessary technologies and the technical knowledge exist to build IIoT ecosystems. What is missing, however, is an understanding of the basic mechanisms of ecosystems and their strategic implications for business. This is the blind spot the paper addresses. It is aimed not only at users and providers of IIoT platforms but also at politicians and associations – as regulators, promoters and multipliers, they play a strategic role in the development of IIoT ecosystems.