Innovation+Ecosystems

What are Innovation Ecosystems and why do we need them?
Enhancing and sustaining innovation requires innovation ecosystems structured to provide a supportive environment. Innovation ecosystems have the character of what are known as complex adaptive systems which enables us to draw on decades of research on complexity to help us build effective innovation support systems.

Innovation ecosystems are systems of people, usually in organizations, behaving as normal non-rational beings, making decisions, experiencing successes and failure, learning, and living. An innovation ecosystem is a complex system of connections, communications, and relationships among people and their environment. Understanding how and why these connections function helps deliver economic and social benefits: new business opportunities, workforce utilization, exports, investment, improved quality of life, prosperity, and more, in a holistic, positive manner.

Most importantly, an innovation ecosystem supports a robust innovation culture. Without such an ecosystem efforts to create and sustain an innovation culture are likely to fail.

Typical examples of ecosystems engineered to support innovation are


 * An innovation ecosystem within a community, region, or country
 * An innovation ecosystem within a community, region, or country
 * An innovation ecosystem within a company or other organization
 * An innovation ecosystem within a cluster of organizations
 * A distributed or cross border innovation ecosystem

Ecosystems are not mysterious; they surround us (in fact, each of us is a life support ecosystem). Ecosystems are qualified by placing a word – “innovation” – for example, in front of “ecosystem” to explain the ecosystem’s function. An innovation ecosystem supports innovation; a health care ecosystem consisting of hospitals, nurses, physicians, insurance plans, medical instruments, and so forth, supports health care; an airline ecosystem supports all aspects of air travel. I think you get the picture. As you go through the motions of your daily existence take a moment to think about all the ecosystems which are supporting you.

Dr. Deborah Jackson at the US National Science Foundation explains the similarity of innovation ecosystems to biological systems thus: “a biological ecosystem is a complex set of relationships among the living resources, habitats, and residents of an area, whose functional goal is to maintain an equilibrium sustaining state.”

Innovation ecosystem are composed of a wide variety of building blocks; its ‘hardware’ and ‘software.’ These building blocks of innovation ecosystems are constructed of other building blocks, strongly or weakly connected, and these of still other building blocks. [see blog:Innovation Ecosystems: Turtles all the way down?]

Hardware building blocks may include companies, universities and colleges, a new business incubator, an accelerator, an early stage investment fund, grants to support proof of concept and prototype development, economic development organizations, a contract research organization, and perhaps a science and technology park together with miscellaneous organizations which were formed for different times but are still functioning. Software building blocks may include mentors to coach new businesses, leaders and role models, a culture of innovation, respect for intellectual property, and trusted cooperation among all building blocks and the ecosystem’s external environment.

However, a collection of building blocks do not in themselves constitute an innovation ecosystem. A community or organization which has companies, universities, leadership, a culture of innovation, and so forth may believe they have an innovation ecosystem. Maybe yes; maybe no. An innovation ecosystem is created by how the building blocks are connected and interact among themselves and with their environment. Better fit among building blocks correlates with better ecosystem performance. It should also be remembered that building blocks are not static but will change over time.

Therefore, an innovation ecosystem is not a fixed scaffolding to support innovative activities. It must be adaptable; changing as the needs of what it supports change. It must be sustainable, scalable, and resilient to internal and external shocks. // How can innovation ecosystems be engineered to have emergent properties and what different kinds of emergence are there? //

‘Emergence’ is a fundamental feature of innovation ecosystems. For example, emergence may create a new business with capabilities that are not reflected in the properties of, or interactions between, each component within the system. Emergent organizations are typically very robust. Emergence of innovation occurs incrementally, or in leaps as in disruptive innovation. Emergence in complex systems enables small changes which may give rise to dis-proportionally large consequences.


 * // When engineering innovation ecosystems how can building blocks such as people, ideas, physical resources, and culture, among others, be combined to create ecosystems which support innovation? //**

An innovation ecosystem’s building blocks have varying degrees of connectedness meaning they cannot be completely ‘decomposed’ into independent units with clear boundaries. For example, technologies tend to build on each other – except where there is a new radical disruptive idea (another case of emergence). Re-arrangement of building blocks can create emergence.


 * // What is the role of context in engineering innovation ecosystems? //**

The context in which complex innovative ecosystems are being engineered is critical. What works in one context will not necessarily work in another.


 * // How are seemingly intractable problems solved and decisions made in complex innovative ecosystems? //**

Non-deductive ways of reasoning and decision making is effective in environments where there is an abundance of ‘wicked problems’ – which is almost everywhere – and where deduction cannot be relied upon needs to be better understood. A ‘tame problem’ can be clearly written down. The problem can be stated as a gap between what is and what ought to be, and where there is clear agreement about problem definition. A wicked problem has an unclear cause and effect connection and is difficult to define. Many possible explanations may exist. Different individuals perceive the issue differently. Depending on the explanation, the solution takes on a different form.


 * // How can shocks and disruptions to innovation ecosystems be managed? //**

Shocks and disruptions can damage organizations but can also trigger innovations, especially when some threshold is reached. Shocks and disruptions can maintain or strengthen some properties while constraining others. Tightly controlled, not so agile, systems designed to operate efficiently under prevailing conditions, with too many strong links and too few weak ones, reduce communications and become unresponsive to external shocks leading to instability or even collapse.

Future additions to this How to Build Innovation Ecosystems sections will include a preview of **How to Build Innovation Ecosystems: Applying Rainforest thinking to support innovation in communities, companies, and organizations** by your wiki host Alistair M. Brett, PhD.

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