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Innovation ecosystems face many environmental challenges. The literature review shows that innovation ecosystems accelerate innovation activity, but empirical studies have not provided enough case studies focusing on the minimum-waste business strategy as one aspect of the circular economy. Various forms of interaction between members occur in the innovation ecosystems, which determines the level of cooperation. This paper aims to show the structure and forms of cooperation in an innovation ecosystem using the Czech Hemp Cluster (CHC) and its surroundings and suggest research directions in the field of interaction between members in an innovation ecosystem. Although hemp is associated with the production and distribution of narcotics, it is a versatile plant supporting the minimum-waste business strategy.

The research is based on a theoretical part of a literature review of major scientific articles on innovation ecosystems from 2016 to 2021. The case study of the CHC and the hemp ecosystem is based on qualitative research in the form of a content analysis of the mission of the cluster members. In addition to content analysis, the classic multidimensional scaling method and hierarchical cluster analysis were used to reveal ecological guilds.

The case study highlighted the specific relationship between the cluster and the ecosystem. The cluster does not determine the ecosystem boundaries, but the ecosystem is a much broader system of cooperation and interaction between organisations. Clusters emerge after an ecosystem has existed for a particular time to coordinate collaboration and information between organisations and stakeholders. The analysis of the CHC revealed the specific role of non-profit organisations (NPOs) in the innovation ecosystem. NPOs are not engaged in primary functions in the value chain, but they provide supporting activities through coordinated networking, disseminating information on innovation, awareness-raising and stakeholder education. Compared to natural ecosystems, innovation ecosystems are typically characterised by higher forms of collaboration between members.

An exciting opportunity for research on innovation ecosystems is the ecological guilds taken from natural ecosystems and whose identification can help define the boundaries of innovation ecosystems. An opportunity for further research is the comparison of NPO-based and government-based clusters playing a central role in developing innovation ecosystems. Regarding the problematic generalisability of the case study to the entire agricultural production, a challenge is a search for minimum-waste business models in agriculture characterised by the biological nature of production.

Theoretical and empirical studies have not yet considered innovation ecosystems in the minimum-waste context to a sufficient extent. The paper builds on previous scholarly studies focusing on innovation ecosystems and, for the first time, discusses the role of NPOs in the innovation ecosystem. The CHC case study adds a suitable minimum-waste business model to the still very scarce literature on sustainable innovation ecosystems. The article discusses the purpose and forms of cooperation in an innovation ecosystem, identifies a complementarity of roles in the innovation cluster and describes the interrelationship between the cluster and the ecosystem. Discussion of the ecosystem leader in the cluster-based innovation ecosystem shows the differences between Czech, Polish and German life science ecosystems.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how Chinese enterprises overcome their lack of resource and capabilities and eventually fulfill global resource accumulation, fast innovative commercialization and significant technological breakthrough by establishing and coordinating innovation ecosystem at firm level.

This paper first reviewed the literature on the structure and coordinating mechanism of enterprise innovation ecosystem and identified two important gaps on the characteristics of ecosystem actors and the logic of innovative coordination. Then, the paper adopted grounded analysis about the construction and evolution of Haier’s innovation ecosystem based on longitudinal case data. On the basis of the case study, the construct of firm-level innovation ecosystem and new logic of coordination are formed.

This paper found the emerging phenomenon of sub-organizational ecosystem actors and depicted that the establishing process of firm-level innovation ecosystem went through three majors stages, and the corresponding coordinating logic changed from proactive intervention to reactive self-evolution.

This paper tried to make contributions to the studies of structure and coordinating mechanism of enterprise innovation ecosystem, and proposed the enterprise itself could build firm-level ecosystem within its organizational boundary and interact with external ecosystem. The findings enlightened the nested structure of ecosystem, opened the black box of organizational boundary and broke the limitation that existing researches only analyse innovation ecosystem at system level and regard firms as basic analytical unit. Besides, this paper proposed that the coordination of innovation ecosystem can be passively fulfilled by network effect and ecological evolution, where previous studies mainly focused on proactive institutional intervention and resource investment. This point could provide Chinese enterprises with good references.

The main purpose of this research is to construct a generalized set of innovation processes that occur at the ecosystem level based on the academic research. The study analyzes the cultural and creativity-driven over-the-top (OTT) platform that encompasses diverse network of ecosystem members by utilizing the four cooperation practices.

This study begins with the literature review that discusses various topics related to ecosystem (e.g. service innovation, innovative ecosystem). Then, this study introduces a new conceptual framework that describes how cooperations occur in the ecosystem. Finally, a qualitative and explorative case study of the OTT platforms in the global context is conducted.

The application of the framework reveals how co-innovative business ecosystems demonstrate co-evolution through different structures and directions. An ecosystem can evolve by incorporating other industries (i.e. horizontal growth or broadening strategy) to deepen and broaden the industry integration.

As an explorative approach that opens the discussion on how co-innovation and co-evolution occur at the ecosystem level, particularly in the culture and creativity-driven industry, the value of this research extends to other similar industries where diverse actors such as technology firms, Internet firms, direct consumers, government and even the society impact the type of product and service and shape the evolution of the entire ecosystem.

This paper uses the multidimensional definition of value – ecosystemic value – and employs lifecycle theory to identify the different stages of evolution of value-creation and -capture processes in an ecosystem. Specifically, the aim of this paper is to show the uneasy transition from supply chains to ecosystems.

Based on a field study of a Canadian ICT ecosystem, this paper adopts a multilevel perspective on value-creation and value-capture processes and illustrates how these processes need to move from a dyadic economic focus to a network socioeconomic one.

The findings pinpoint the uneasy transition from supply-chains management to ecosystems management and provide a framework for understanding how value creation and value capture should be coupled throughout the ecosystem lifecycle. Finally, five theoretical and managerial propositions are suggested to better leverage ecosystemic capabilities and better manage value creation and value capture in ecosystems.

Five theoretical and managerial propositions are suggested to better leverage ecosystemic capabilities and better manage value creation and value capture in ecosystems.

Many marketing and management scholars discuss the limitations of unbalanced perspectives (customer- or seller-centric) in building a comprehensive view of how value is created and captured. This multi-actors case study highlights how ecosystemic value creation may be obstructed by a firm's focus on value capture.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), typically with limited resources, strive hard to obtain the trust of ecosystem participants as an orchestrator. Accordingly, the firms do not have sufficient legitimacy to persuade other parties to join their networks. This study aims to investigate how an SME operating in the publishing industry orchestrates ecosystem participants. In particular, the study analyzes how the orchestrating firm stimulates interactions among ecosystem participants.

Case study research with a qualitative approach has been documented as a well-accepted method for investigating complex phenomena and for theory building. Collected data from various informants and different collection techniques are triangulated to ensure validity. Cross-case analysis to identify common patterns is undertaken as the basis for developing a sound conclusion.

The study demonstrated what orchestrating firms should do to foster innovations and how they benefit from other participants in the ecosystem. The analysis identified the orchestrator's four roles: entrepreneurship networks, knowledge activation, innovation intermediary and network leadership. Among the four roles, there are interrelationships, and to some degree, these overlap. The orchestrating firm must emerge into the ecosystem and work together with all members of the ecosystem. Managers of the orchestrating firm and network members should collaborate to find the most beneficial configuration for all ecosystem participants.

This research is limited to the knowledge-intensive publishing industry. The use of specific industries closely related to innovation provides an advantage in the way that enables researchers to conduct depth analysis, but at the expense of generalizability, and therefore, future research can analyze different industries.

This study focuses on networks as the unit of analysis. Previous studies assumed individual firms as the unit of analysis and ignored the fact that companies interact with other companies when pursuing open innovation. The study focuses on the interactions between actors as the unit of analysis and on the role of orchestrators undertaken by an SME.

The entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) literature is dominated by conceptual studies with insufficient theoretical foundations and empirical evidence on the micro-level. This study aims to explore the largely overlooked question of what the drivers that motivate small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to participate in an ecosystem are.

The study adopts a qualitative exploratory approach. The empirical data consists of 19 semi-structured interviews with top management of SMEs in the health tech ecosystem in Finland. The data were analyzed using a thematic content analysis.

This study reveals a typology of drivers that motivate SMEs to participate in an ecosystem. These include social drivers (networking and cooperation and communication and knowledge sharing), resource drivers (access to resources, formal and informal support and market access) and cognitive drivers (shared goals and common values).

The study contributes to the EE research by highlighting the drivers that motivate health tech SMEs to become members of the local ecosystem. It suggests that managers and entrepreneurs need to be aware of the factors related to social, resource and cognitive drivers to ensure the future success of their business.

The study draws evidence from a micro-level perspective which enriches the understanding of the EE phenomenon. It also explores an increasingly relevant but under-researched field, the health tech ecosystem.

Competence-based theory provides valuable insights in a business context characterized by global ecosystems, co-specialization, and asset orchestration. As the unit of analysis shifts from the individual enterprise to the ecosystem, pursuing proper competence building and competence leveraging activities considering both firm-specific and firm-addressable resources becomes a key issue in strategy development.

Based on the original concepts of the competence-based theory, this paper suggests that the competence space can be a useful framework when considering alternative ecosystem strategies. Competence-based theory, emphasizing the simultaneous pursuit of competence leveraging and competence building, provides an important complement to other dynamic perspectives on strategy, such as dynamic capabilities and ambidexterity. The paper also suggests considering the inclusion of aesthetic properties as an important part of competence-based theory.

Two key factors in the success of general-purpose computing platforms are the creation of a technical standards architecture and managing an ecosystem of third-party suppliers of complementary products. Here, we examine Symbian Ltd., a startup firm that developed a strong technical architecture and broad range of third-party complements with its Symbian OS for smartphones. Symbian was shipped in nearly 450 million mobile phones from 2000 to 2010, making it the most popular smartphone platform during that period. However, its technical and market control of the platform were limited by its customers, particularly Nokia. From 2007 onward, Symbian lost market share and developer loyalty to the new iPhone and Android platforms, leading to the extinction of the company and eventually its platform. Together, this suggests lessons for the evolution of a complex ecosystem, and the impact of asymmetric dependencies and divided leadership upon ecosystem success.

Despite the constantly increasing number of publications in the field of business ecosystems, there are indications that a precise definition that appropriately captures the business ecosystem mindset is not yet available. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a consensus definition of business ecosystems.

Using structured content analysis, this paper examines a total of 43 definitions in terms of their core components.

The results indicate that the existing definitions focus only on single components, e.g. “network of actors,” thereby omitting other essential components, such as “cocreated value proposition” or “shared fate.” Consequently, it seems appropriate to develop a consensus definition that combines the perspectives of the academic and practitioner communities.

The proposed definition is more comprehensive than the prevailing definitions and represents a synthesis of previous considerations on business ecosystems. Such a definition will support researchers in developing a sound business ecosystem theory that will guide practitioners in the efficient design and management of business ecosystems in the long term.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how family members co-create value and improve the well-being of patients with chronic developmental disorders, such as Asperger syndrome (AS) that undertake permanent therapy services.

Qualitative methodology is used to identify family value co-creation activities and well-being outcomes. Extensive interviews with family members and professional therapists of AS patients were conducted as the main data collection method.

Drawing from previous conceptualizations of value co-creation activities in health contexts, the findings of this study identify the specific value co-creation activities held by family members that influence the different dimensions of well-being for AS patients and their families: co-learning, combining therapies, changing ways of doing things, connecting, co-operation and co-production, managing daily life, motivating, protecting, regulating and establishing roles. The findings also reveal improvements in the following dimensions of patient well-being: autonomy, self-acceptance, purpose in life, positive relationships with others, control of the environment and personal growth. In addition, value co-creation activities also improve family relationships at home and the well-being of patient family members.

This study contributes to the services literature and addresses a gap in transformative service research by exploring the value co-creation activities of family members for improving well-being outcomes of patients with chronic developmental disorders. People with chronic developmental disorders engage in permanent therapy services and tend to have below-average well-being scores, which also extends to their family members.