01713nas a2200121   4500008004100000022001400041245003300055210003100088260004200119520137500161100001901536856003601555       2010                        eng d  a1913-610200aKeystone: Adjective or Noun?0 aKeystone Adjective or Noun  aOttawabTalent First Networkc09/20103 aThe gopher tortoise is an unassuming land animal that inhabits sandy regions of the southeastern United States. Like many other desert inhabitants it needs to seek shelter from the heat of the sun. Gopher tortoises are very adept at digging burrows in which they can hide during the peak hours of the day. These burrows offer shelter to many other species that are not able to dig underground. Without the burrows dug by tortoises many types of rodents and snakes would not be able to survive. The existence of the gopher tortoise in its ecosystem affects the health of many other species.

The gopher tortoise is an example of a keystone species or keystone. As in biological ecosystems, some companies or institutions in business ecosystems are instrumental for the better well-being of others. They play the role of a keystone. In this article, we examine the question of what makes a keystone a keystone. We introduce two perspectives on that question: one provided by ecology, the other by network analysis. We then review how the term keystone is used by the literature on business ecosystems.

Two lessons that readers should take from this article are that the keystone concept, as used by the majority of the business ecosystem literature, is not clearly articulated, and that there are many unresolved issues in applying the concept to business ecosystems.1 aWeiss, Michael  uhttp://timreview.ca/article/376