Capability  development  of  the  colombian  oil  industry: towards a dynamic user-producer innovation ecosystem.

This research analyses the phenomenon of firm's capability development through the lens of user-producer interactions by focusing on user firms and its relations with component (e.g. equipment producers) and complement producers (e.g. implementation and operation management) -foreign and local-. Learning and capability development, firm's boundaries, user-producer interactions, knowledge intermediary firms and innovation ecosystems are the main themes that frame the research. Therefore, the study builds and develops its theoretical position based on these related bodies of literature to deepen the understanding of i) the technological challenges, ii) the coordination process and iii) the knowledge exchange and integration that shape the conditions of user-producer interactions identified in the literature as a key dynamicfortechnological and innovative capabilities building. The empirical setting is located in the oil industry based on two contexts defined as emerging and where the oil operating companies are defined as latecomer firms. The first one is the Colombian oil industry with Ecopetrol S.a as a focal firm. The second is the Brazilian oil industry with Petrobras as the reference point firm. This context makes an interesting case for understanding and promoting the conditions for a potential technological development by making improvements in the interaction within the industry with the whole system of component and complement producers. In doing so, the scope of the research departs from the understanding of the empirical setting through the analytical foundations, to generating and implementing the conditions for the creation of a user producer ecosystem scheme.