Abstract
The existing literature on innovation ecosystem overlooks the differences between knowledge ecosystems and business ecosystems, and mostly focuses on a single-layer analysis of the ecosystem. Also, ecosystem mapping studies involve either whole-network analysis at the macro-level or ego-network analysis at the micro-level, while few studies have investigated network community analysis at the meso-level. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework of Multi-layered Innovation Ecosystem Mapping (MIEM) to explore both knowledge and business ecosystems, thereby extending the analysis to the network communities. Based on multi-source heterogeneous data and machine learning, MIEM includes four steps in conducting the analysis: define the research scope and collect data; construct whole networks; identify communities; and recognize strategic roles. In particular, Newman topological clustering is adopted to identify network communities, and a strategic-role matrix is used to analyze the roles in a community. Based on this framework, a case study of numerical-control machine tool ecosystem mapping is conducted using patents and value-added tax invoice data.
Highlights
Innovation ecosystems are attracting increasing attention from both academics and practitioners
This paper aims to investigate the multi-layered innovation ecosystem using network clustering and community identification, in order to address the following questions: (1) What is the holistic view of an innovation ecosystem that enables knowledge and business value creation and capture? (2) What are the critical communities in an innovation ecosystem? (3) What are the strategic roles of firms in the critical communities that constitute the multi-layered innovation ecosystem? This paper proposes a framework for multilayered innovation ecosystem mapping, which provides a holistic view that help to inspect and promote open innovation synergies between knowledge and business, as well as probe into the innovation communities at meso-level
We find that the similarity of communities between knowledge ecosystem and business ecosystem is very low, which indicates that firms have different partners in technological collaborations and business transactions
Summary
Innovation ecosystems are attracting increasing attention from both academics and practitioners. The mapping of innovation ecosystem needs to be expanded from a single-layer analysis to multi-layer analysis. An innovation ecosystem comprises two distinct subecosystems: the knowledge ecosystem and the business ecosystem (Clarysse et al 2014; Oh et al 2016). Knowledge creation in the knowledge ecosystem and value capture in the business ecosystem should both be emphasized when examining innovation ecosystems. Most research on innovation ecosystems has focused on a single layer of the ecosystem, regardless of the heterogeneities and connections between the knowledge ecosystem and the business ecosystem (Xu et al 2018). The investigation of a multi-layered innovation ecosystem, which bridges the divide between the knowledge and business ecosystems, represents an avenue of needed research
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