| The uncertainty of the market environment and the increasing levels of competition as result of globalisation encourage companies to form business ecosystem in order to gain resilience and agility.Business ecosystem is described as a web of loose relationships where actors in the network have idiosyncratic resources and knowledge by pursuing their own interests.Therefore,the business ecosystem needs governance mechanisms to coordinate the behavior of the actors and realize value creation.However,the existing literature has relatively insufficient research on the mechanisms of business ecosystem governance affecting coordination behavior and the relationship boundary.This study aims to assess the impact of governance mechanisms on the coordination of the business ecosystem of the pharmaceutical industry in Ghana,and explore the mediating role of opportunistic behavior and closeness,as well as the moderating role of perceived performance risk.The study adopted quantitative approach with descriptive cross-sectional survey research design to collect data(home and abroad)from the business ecosystem of pharmaceutical company X in Ghana.A structured questionnaire carefully designed on a 5-point Likert scale was used to collect data.After five months of data collection,a sample of 234 institutions responded appropriately to the questionnaire.The data analysis was done using the 234 responses from the institutions.The data analysis was run using structural equation modelling(SEM)and both the Amos(v.23)and SPSS(v.23)software packages were used.In order to ascertain the appropriateness of the methods and the instruments used to test the proposed relationships,preliminary analysis such as descriptive statistics,validity and reliability of the model,correlation analysis and multi-collinearity test were conducted.The first objective of the study was to assess the effect of governance mechanisms on coordination.It was revealed that both governance mechanisms(relational and contractual)had a positive and significant effect on BE stakeholders' coordination.Though,both governance mechanisms were found to ensure coordination,relational governance was found to be more effective in ensuring coordination of business ecosystem stakeholders.The second objective also sought to find the mediating effect of closeness in the relationship between governance mechanisms and coordination.While closeness was found to positively and significantly mediates the relationship between relational governance and coordination,it was however,found to negatively and significantly mediates the relationship between contractual governance and coordination.The third objective was to assess the mediating effect of opportunistic behavior in the relationship between governance mechanisms and coordination.It was found that opportunistic behavior mediates the relationship between both governance mechanisms(relational and contractual)and coordination of business ecosystem stakeholders.Objective four also intended to examine the moderating effect of perceived performance risk on the relationship between governance mechanisms and coordination.It was concluded that perceived performance risk negatively moderates the relationship between relational governance and coordination.This implies that the positive relationship between relational governance and coordination is higher when performance risk is lower than when it is high.It was again revealed that perceived performance risk positively moderates the relationship between contractual governance and coordination.This therefore means that the positive relationship between contractual governance and coordination is lower when perceived performance risk is low than when it is high.Lastly,objective five assessed the moderating effect of perceived performance risk on the relationship between closeness and opportunistic behavior,and coordination.The result showed that perceived performance risk negatively moderates the relationship between closeness and coordination.This implies that the positive relationship between closeness and coordination is higher when perceived performance risk is low than when it is high.Again,perceived performance risk positively moderates the relationship between opportunistic behavior and coordination.This means that the negative relationship between opportunistic behavior and coordination is lower when perceived performance risk is low than when it is high.The results of this study make some possible innovative contributions to the business ecosystem literature.First,this study employs governance mechanisms typology well known in studies such as network business,strategic alliance,and inter-firm exchange relationship literature to assess its effect on business ecosystem coordination in Ghana's pharmaceutical sector,and the result revealed which of the governance mechanisms is more effective in ensuring coordination.Second,the use of closeness and opportunistic behavior as mediating variables to assist our comprehension of the mechanisms through which governance mechanisms influences business ecosystem coordination in the pharmaceutical sector of Ghana is an innovative contribution as no study in existing literature has explored this relationship especially in Ghana and more importantly sub-Saharan emerging markets and African context.Hence,this research fills this lacuna in existing business ecosystem literature and provides other scholars with an understanding of the roles of closeness and opportunistic behavior in elucidating governance mechanisms and business ecosystem coordination relationship in the context of sub-Saharan emerging markets and by extension Africa.Lastly,this is the first study to assess the moderation of perceived performance risk and how it influences governance mechanisms-coordination,closeness-coordination,opportunistic behavior-coordination relationships.The study has significantly proven that perceived performance risks influence the strength of the governance mechanisms-coordination,closeness-coordination,opportunistic behavior-coordination relationships. |
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