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Business ecosystems do not occur naturally, it needs an orchestrator to align and govern actors to cocreate value and appropriate value. This qualitative action research analyzed the structure and governance of the beekeeping industry in Tanzania. The transaction-based market relations should be changed to a collaborative model by aligning value chain actors in the beekeeping industry through the honey collection centre. Also, the value should be appropriated and shared among participating firms in a fairly and truthful way. The orchestrator should make sure that beekeepers join and stay in the ecosystem. Policymakers, researchers, and organization should adopt the ecosystem-as-structure approach to build and govern a commercial beekeeping ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can firms with limited scope and scale compete to create value and appropriate value beyond their existing business? Firms in the beekeeping industry in Tanzania, beekeepers, in particular, have failed to create sufficient value and appropriate a sizable value as they have limited financial resources to invest. The business ecosystem approach indicates that firms can jointly create value that can capture sizable value through the ecosystem's resources. In the beekeeping industry, the ecosystem should be structured around the honey collection center and its efficiency depends on productivity, lock-in, channel management, complementarity, and the position and activities of actors. Firms' ability to successfully create value and capture value depends on the ability to team up with partners with complementary assets and skills in an industry architecture. Value creation and value appropriation cannot materialize if partners are not committed and willing to work together on long term bases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]