This document discusses innovation ecosystems and outlines potential areas for further research. It notes that innovation ecosystems involve interdependent firms that work cooperatively to create value. Successful management of an ecosystem is important for firm success. The document then discusses different perspectives on ecosystems from various discussants. These include examining competing platforms, barriers to collaboration between and within firms, rules for multi-firm collaboration, and the role of universities in local innovation ecosystems. The document concludes that ecosystems are increasingly important but more research is needed, especially extending the ideas beyond information and communication technologies sectors.

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Innovation Ecosystems:
Benefits, Challenges, and
Structures
Discussion
August 5, 2014
Joel West
Professor, Innovation & Entrepreneurship
School of Applied Life Sciences
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Innovation Ecosystems
• Interdependence between firms
• Joint need for ecosystem health
• Work cooperatively to create value
• Specialization and niche finding
• Often lead by dominant firm
• Firm success depends on ecosystem management skills
• Importance of building healthy and complete ecosystem
Moore 1993, Iansiti & Levien, 2004, Adner, 2012

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Users
Smartphone Ecosystems
West & Wood, Advances in
Strategic Management (2013)
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Networks, Communities
• Networks link multiple organizations via
transactions or ongoing ties
• Powell, 1990; Gomes-Casseres, 1996; Staudenmayer et al, 2000
• Communities add shared identity and governance
• Markus, 2007; von Hippel, 2007; O’Mahony & Lakhani, 2011
• Ecosystems link firms that provide complementary
goods and services
• Moore, 1993; Iansiti & Levien, 2004; Adner & Kapoor, 2010
• Platforms combine a technical compatibility
architecture with an ecosystem
• Gawer & Cusumano, 2002; West, 2003; Eisenmann, 2008
See West, New Frontiers in Open Innovation (2013)

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Marengo: Platforms
• Interdependence and complementarity
of ecosystems
• Particular interest in platforms
• Complex systems
• Mutual interest in platform success
• Need to evolve ecosystem and its outputs
• Studied via a model
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Marengo: Further Research
• Opportunity to generalize insights on
dynamic platform competition
• Examine competing platforms
• Four basic types of platform contests (Gallagher &
West, 2009):
• Static (VCR)
• Episodic (early videogames)
• Linked (cellphones, current videogames)
• Continuous (smartphones, social media)

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Miles: Communities
• We know collaboration is important
• What are the barriers between firms?
• What are the barriers within firms?
• Is it driven by firm (or societal) norms?
• How can we change things?
• Direct links to cumulative innovation
• Allen, 1983; Nuvolari, 2004; Scotchmer, 2004; Murray
& O’Mahony, 2007; also von Hippel, 2005
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Miles: Further Research
• Many firms compete w/o cooperating
• Rarer are examples of firm cooperation
• Inventors of the airplane (Meyer, 2013)
• Standardization communities (Axelrod et al, 1995;
Leiponen, 2008; Simcoe, 2012)
• Open source software (West, 2003; Stam, 2009;
Spaeth et al, 2010)
• Are differences attitudinal or strategic?
• An open empirical questions

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Snow: Communities
• Multi-firm innovation ecosystems
• How can firms best collaborate?
• What are the rules?
• What benefits can be realized?
See Fjelstad et al (2012), Moore (1993)
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Snow: Further Research
• We have examples of the architecture of
interfirm collaboration
• West & O’Mahony, 2008; Fjeldstad et al, 2012
• But need a more general solution
• What are the fundamental axioms?
• Moderators?
• Contracts and property rights?
• Other research designs (experiments,
simulations, ethnographic, etc.)
• Cf. O’Mahony & Ferraro, 2007; Terwiesch & Xu 2008

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Teece & Leih: Local
Ecosystems
• What is the proper role for a university
in the local innovation ecosystem?
• How can it be made more effective?
• What are the needs of new firms?
• How can both parties benefit?
• Will this corrupt the university?
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Teece & Leih: Further
Research
• Some of this is well-trodden
• Universities as seeds of local industry
clusters (cf. Kenney & Mowery 2014)
• University tech transfer
• University-firm open system
• Measuring ongoing flows (both ways)
• Measuring simultaneous ties
• Role of boundary spanners

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Final Thoughts
• Ecosystems are increasingly recognized
as important to firm success
• Important to theory and practice
• An opportunity for future research
• Considerable research on ICT and other digital goods
• How do these ideas extend beyond ICT?
• E.g. Kim et al 2014 study of Chez Panisse
• Clearly delineate overlap with other constructs