Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) and innovation ecosystems (IEs) have been considered as separate entities, as their origination follows different paths.  EE’s are typically shaped by economic issues and policy changes, while IEs exhibit chaos especially during their emergence.

However, recent studies have started exploring them as complementary concepts, focusing on their commonalities and interdependencies.

Therefore, shedding light on the entire lifecycle of EEs and IEs, can help clarify the links between different ecosystems, the types of interactions, the governance dynamics, and ways to build robustness and resilience.

A better understanding of ecosystems’ dynamics can also contribute to designing novel methods of performance measurement.

Andrea Ancona and Dr. Dieudonnee Cobben are co-chairs for the “Unveiling ecosystem dynamics: bridging gaps between Entrepreneurial and Innovation” track of the R&D Management Conference 2024. We asked them about their track. 

What do you think are the most disruptive influences impacting developments in your track?

• New insights are emerging about the evolutionary processes of entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems, and how they are affected by policies.
• There are increasing calls from practice to quantify/measure the societal impact of entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems
• Technological developments, such as AI, will improve the understanding of the complexity of innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems.
• Analyzing possible transitions between different ecosystem types over time.

Can you describe some recent findings in this area that are of interest to you personally?

Both types of ecosystems evolve following a chaotic process. For entrepreneurial ecosystems this can come from fluctuations created by economic crises and policy initiatives, while innovation ecosystems are particularly chaotic nature during their emergence.

So, ecosystem types should considered not as standalone concepts but rather combined at different levels in order to achieve different types of goals.

To give an example from the perspective of value creation, entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems can be considered as nested environments that contribute to economic development and innovation growth of regions where they emerge.

Therefore, to  measure their impact effectively requires the lens of complex system to develop data-driven methodologies capable of exploring concepts such as resilience, sustainability, flexibility, and health.

If someone was new to this topic what would you suggest they read to get a quick overview of the issues?

[1]. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-023-00738-6

[2]. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-021-00487-4

[3]. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296323002187

[4]. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0040162516306576

[5]. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0040162516307867

[6]. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352673420300500

[7]. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733321001359

[8]. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/radm.12460