Emergence of a new sector via a business ecosystem: a case study of Universal Robots and the collaborative robotics sector

Abstract

This study presents how a small and medium-sized company has successfully created a new sector through constructing a business ecosystem. Drawing upon interviews and secondary data, this case study explains how Denmark’s Universal Robots (UR) launched the collaborative robotics sector by constructing a business ecosystem that included producers of peripherals, system integrators and distributors in the industrial robotics industry. In forging the path towards collaborative robotics, UR introduced modular architecture to the industrial robotics industry and established an information hub that attracted participants for its positive network effects. This study extends the scholarly literature and assists practitioners by describing how a start-up company leveraged external resources by re-arranging the value system and created a new sector in the robotics industry.