NESTA Crime Online - University of Brighton Repository

A digital business ecosystem is one that is facilitated by the extensive use of digital
technologies, without which firms will be disadvantaged in their business operations. 118
Thus, cybercriminals involved in credit card and identity theft operate in a digital
business ecosystem.
In essence, innovation studies tell us that a healthy digital business ecosystem requires:
• a fluid value chain that supports innovative activity and responds to changing
needs and environment
• the capabilities required to undertake innovation
• the business models that are adopted to make the most profitable use of the
various sources of capabilities.
2.1 The cybercrime value chain
The concept of value chain is a useful tool to understand the sequence of
activities required to perpetrate cybercrime and how they link to each other.
Value chain analysis describes how activities integrate in the production of goods and
services. This is a relevant framework for understanding the phenomenon of cybercrime
and its dynamics.
Organisations are increasingly operating in a global environment. Globalisation is now
understood not only as a mere expansion of economic activities across boundaries but
also – perhaps more importantly – as the functional integration 119 of internationally
118 Scholars have defined the digital ecosystem as the enabling technology for a business ecosystem. Digital
technologies support the distribution of technologies and the development of “evolutionary business models for
organizations.” See P. Dini and F. Nachira, (2007), “The paradigm of structural coupling in digital ecosystems,
“ in A. Corallo, A., G. Passiante, A. Prencipe, (2007), The Digital Business Ecosystem (Eds). Cheltenham:
Edward Elgar, pp.33-52, at p.42.
119 Functional integration defines the way corporations (particularly multinational companies) are able to
function as a globally integrated unit. A clear example is represented by large firms in the automobile industry,
which are characterised by global fragmentation of their production, establishing complete manufacturing and
assembly plants in numerous individual countries.
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