Design of a Platform-Based B2B Ecosystem Framework for the Electric Energy Market

Ecosystems have been popularized as a tool for organizing and managing a wide range of businesses due to their advantages and benefits required by today's markets. Energy markets, as development infrastructures in societies, can also benefit from the capacities of ecosystems for optimal efficiency due to their strategic and complex nature. Lack of understanding of the nature, dimensions, prerequisites, and most important factors affecting the energy ecosystem has limited the opportunity to benefit from it for many managers, decision makers, and markets, and in practice, this efficient management tool is not used optimally in business. This research has attempted to present the framework of a platform-based ecosystem that has not been considered by researchers. This research is a qualitative, applied, and exploratory study. The research population consisted of market management experts and energy industry activists, and with a grounded theory approach, it has identified the categories that have an impact on the research topic. Data collection was carried out using purposive sampling and snowball method, and semi-structured interviews using a protocol prepared with the help of scientific and practical experts. Finally, the B2B platform ecosystem framework of the electricity energy market was identified and extracted.