This paper aims to explain the industry emergence following a disruptive innovation through key activities (KAs) in interorganizational networks, i.e. the structural components of innovation that are actors and their interorganizational network. Based on the literature on interorganizational relationships (IORs) and disruptive innovation, we create a link with Adner’s ecosystem-as-structure construct to argue that the innovation networks could be used as an assessment tool to highlight key activities rather than focal companies to explain industry emergence. To explore our argument, we developed a longitudinal innovation network analysis of the autonomous vehicles industry from 2011 to 2019 based on a unique database encompassing 545 IORs. Our key findings revealed that IORs could be used as metrics for illustrating the emerging years of an industry, while also supporting Adner’s construct on ecosystem-as-structure as IORs for autonomous vehicles emerge around five key activities (i.e. connectivity, artificial intelligence, design and commercialization, sensing and Mobility-as-a-Service). In doing so, we reveal the interest to adopt a yearly macro analysis for explaining industry emergence.
