Interoperability as a Catalyst for Business Innovation

The core notion for enforcing, supporting and enabling communication and collaboration amongst stakeholders in a given business ecosystem can be regarded as Interoperability. Interoperability is not a new concept nor is there a standardised definition for the term interoperability. From a scientific and business point of view interoperability was already discussed as early as in 1990' s. Developing a common understanding of interoperability is a difficult task. However, while businesses perceive interoperability as the realisation of collaborative partnerships amongst peers, a closer look at the terminology from a technological perspective may regard interoperability as an enabler of business collaboration. This paper seeks to demonstrate how interoperability can serve as a catalyst for business innovation. This is achieved by exploring its core definitions and illustrating relevance and applicability thereof through a use case that enforces value co-creation amongst business ecosystem partners (and therefore business innovation).