Projects as the enablers of ecosystem’s emergence : The case of the connected autonomous mobility

The thesis deals with the relevant forms of management of innovation projects with a strong systemic, disruptive and digital component, which contribute to the structuring of an ecosystem. Indeed, these types of innovation are becoming more and more numerous given the growing connection of objects / services / companies / public authorities and the resulting new cross-business opportunities.The insights provided by existing literature enable managers to perform strategic decision making when rules of the game are set among known actors, but not when the actors and the environment are progressively defined. Nowadays, managers from private and public institutions need to get aligned with variable internal, external conditions, time perspectives, and ill-defined demand system; they miss guidance on how proceeding with it. The research questions emerging from empirical and theoretical investigations are the following: 1. How can an ecosystem project be managed? Is there a specific pattern, and which are the variables of project steering? 2.Which are the most strategically performing steering processes for the selection of innovation projects related to ecosystem structuring? Which are the organizational variables and the mediating variables toward eco-systemic structuring? 3. Which are the more adequate management artefacts to support the exploration process in a context of ecosystem project? In order to study the dynamics at work, and to instrumentalise their management, the research work focuses on the case of connected mobility, observed through the participation in three projects, according to the uses defined by the impetus of OEMs, and under the initiatives of users (autonomous vehicle, connected, electric, shared). The projects chosen concern the diffusion of the fast charging infrastructure of the electric vehicle, the creation of a prototype marketplace for the data collected by the vehicles, and the development of services enabled by the autonomous vehicle. All of them constitute a terrain particularly disrupted by the trend of connection, forcing a reconfiguration of actors, their partnership policies, their business model (ex: Uber, Google Car .). Hence the current need to update existing tools and theories in innovation management. The analysis of the data collected provides elements to answer the research questions. Following the identification of management challenges specific to systemic and disruptive innovation projects, we have developed a framework of analysis and action integrating the three underlying theoretical logic (platform leadership / systemic innovation, disruptive innovation / design driven innovation, digital business model). We have identified and characterized a project typology, the Proto-ecosystem project, which enables stakeholders to create the knowledge, skills and connections that contribute to the structuring of an ecosystem. We have identified the typical process by stage finalized to the alignment of the partners of the observed projects and the more efficient artifacts in this alignment process. We have indicated the limitations of this research and the possible future evolutions.