“Who Will Be the Orchestrator in An Autonomous Driving (AD) Business Ecosystem?” - The Position of the Internet of Things Platform Providers (IoTPPs) Versus Traditional Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) of the Automotive Industry

As one of the most strategically significant and financially promising developing industries, autonomous driving (AD) ecosystems are facing challenging technical obstacles, organizational barriers, and financial requirements. The crucial question is which companies are most qualified to be the leaders of such ecosystems: to define the rules, and ultimately to reap the highest financial returns? This study defines a framework of an AD ecosystem, determines the needed capabilities for the orchestrator of an AD ecosystem, implements four qualitative interviews to make a first preliminary evaluation for the required capabilities of an orchestrator. Furthermore, hypotheses are derived and a questionnaire for the conducted pretest is developed which may also be used in a large quantitative empirical study asking what challenges the IoTPPs and AI-OEMs face in taking the dominating role compared to other referencing participants.