Abstract
There is a growing interest in innovation ecosystems from academia and practice. Embedding innovation processes in these ecosystems comes with several opportunities and managerial challenges. The aim of this paper is to increase our understanding of the strategies managers of industrial firms use to deal with innovation ecosystems. How do they align partners and activities, while securing their role in the innovation ecosystem? In addition, we aim to further develop the concept of innovation ecosystems by embedding it in the broader literature on innovation systems. We draw on a large set of interviews with innovation managers in Germany and the Netherlands. Based on our study, we identify two layers of innovation ecosystems. One is a more open, explorative layer aimed at exploring new technologies and articulating opportunities, another is a more closed, exploitative layer aimed at enacting these opportunities and technologies. Between the layers, synergies and tensions exist. Companies have developed strategies to deal with both layers, in particular related to alignment and strategic positioning.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 20th International CINet Conference |
| Subtitle of host publication | Innovating in an era of continuous disruption |
| Place of Publication | Odense, Denmark |
| Pages | 507-517 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-90-77360-21-7 |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Keywords
- Innovation ecosystems
- Innovation strategy
- Industrial firms
- Multi-layered systems
