In this research we explore business model innovation on a nascent market for sharing resources in ecosystems involving a wide range of different organizations. A multiple case study provides qualitative insights from ten different types of organizations. We combine Resource-Based View (RBV) theory and the ecosystem perspective to analyze multi-actor sharing. Our study extends the RBV literature by highlighting the strategic importance of sharing resources within ecosystems. Our study shows that sharing resources is becoming a strategic necessity for organizations transitioning to sustainable operations. The nascent nature of shared services leads to business model innovation, highlighting the dynamic and evolving nature of ecosystems. Our findings reveal that trust-based collaboration across industries and sectors is necessary in this context to facilitate the use of shared resources. Our study identifies trust as a mechanism to deal with the uncertainties in the distribution of roles within the ecosystem, involving public and private entities, government roles, and the dynamics between larger and smaller companies, reflecting the RBV perspective that not all actors may regard the same resource as valuable.
