Scaling high and wide: leveraging artificial intelligence for ecosystem scale-up

Abstract

Digital firms often struggle to balance scaling up with expanding scope, with is a trade-off due to resource limitations. Our longitudinal study of ByteDance challenges this assumption, showing how Artificial Intelligence (AI) resolves this tension through its replicability and self-reinforcement. We develop a process model illustrating how AI, paired with adaptive ecosystem strategies, enables firms to simultaneously scaling up and expanding scope. This reframes AI as a strategic enabler of ecosystem growth, allowing firms to unlock exponential growth across domains without the traditional constraints. Our findings contribute to scale-up and ecosystem literatures by highlighting AI’s ability to overcome resource trade-offs.