Managing Complexity and Interactions in an Emerging Innovation Ecosystem

This study aims to explore the emergence of an innovation ecosystem as a complex network of entities involved in innovation. After reviewing three ecosystem-based perspectives in the literature, we conduct a participatory and longitudinal action research study based on the analysis of a High Technology District for Cultural Heritage. Our analysis reveals three milestones in the establishment of an innovation ecosystem, which we identify as setting the context, establishing interdependence, and giving continuity. The study contributes to the scholarly debate in that we analyse the dynamics through which an innovation ecosystem emerges as a co-created and co-evolutionary context that shapes actions, interests and rules among a multiplicity of actors and collectively fosters innovation. We further identify different salient tensions between opposing forces that characterize the relationships and interdependencies among actors. The appropriate structures, flexible institutions and negotiation opportunities are necessary for the design and development of the workability and viability of an innovation ecosystem.