Purpose: By nowadays, in addition to the innovation systems definitions, the research area of innovation ecosystems operation is also developing significantly. The aim of the research is to examine how the concept of the innovation ecosystem and the conceptual scope of complexity theory are related. Theoretical reference: The paper gives an overview of development of innovation ecosystems literature, and also introduces summary of general systems theory. The authors point out that the joint discussion of the two areas are very rare in the related research works. There are few examples of referring Complex Adaptive Systems as potential approach for innovation ecosystems, but detailed theoretical analysis of the topic is limited. Method: The paper analyses the relationship and possible overlap of fields of innovation ecosystems and complexity theory by evaluation of findings of content analysis and a keyword-based method. As part of the methodology presented, the research of the theme is carried out from two aspects. First, based on review-type and theoretical works, a content analysis was made to define specific key feature word sets in both innovation ecosystems and complex theory areas. Then, based on these keyword set, validation was executed based on abstracts of selected papers in order to define possible relations of the two fields. Results and Conclusion: As a result of the research, authors draw conclusions about the relationship between the definition of innovation ecosystems and complexity theory. Both the joint keywords and the non-relevant words have been pointed out. The authors concluded that there is apparent theoretical relation of the two areas from content point of view, based on analysis of relevant scientific papers. Implications of research: The outcomes of the research fundamentally influence the treatment of innovation ecosystems, which has been traditionally assumed linear, deterministic and controllable behaviour. Introducing the potential of complex systems allow opening new aspects to manage such challenges of innovation ecosystems which could not been handled in the usual way. Originality/value: The joint discussion of the topic of innovation ecosystems and complex systems theory is rather rare in the related scientific works. The novelty of the current paper is the systematic approach defined for this analysis purpose and way of validation of the pre-defined keyword set through abstracts of relevant papers. The present research addressed the preliminary discussion of the given research question, further research and analysis can be made based on larger-scale paper base.
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