Creating value in ecosystems: Crossing the chasm between knowledge and business ecosystems

Abstract

Policy makers take initiatives to stimulate knowledge ecosystems in technology hotspots. It is implicitly assumed that these ecosystems will lead to value networks through which the participating companies can realize a competitive advantage. Value networks refer to business ecosystems where the value proposition is offered by a group of companies which are mutually complementary. The strategy literature suggests that business ecosystems lead to competitive advantages for each of the partners in the ecosystem. Based on a unique hand-collected database of 138 innovative start-ups in the region of Flanders, we analyze the knowledge and business ecosystem and the financial support network. We find that the knowledge ecosystem is well structured and concentrated around a number of central actors while the business ecosystem is almost non-existent at the local level. Further, we find that the financial support network is almost 100% publicly backed and fails to bridge the knowledge and business ecosystem. The implications for policy makers who tend to focus on the development of local ecosystems are discussed.

Spatial health and life sciences business ecosystem: a case study of San Diego

“…However, our study raises several points that should be considered by researchers and decision-makers who contribute to the design of innovation policies, since policy efforts have typically focused on fostering knowledge ecosystems with an assumption that development of business ecosystem follows. However, previous research indicates this assumption to be questionable (Clarysse et al, 2014). For example, a balance should exist between genuine risk financing and public support.…”

“…The target is to create local circumstances that create competitive advantages in global markets. Yet, the study by Clarysse et al (2014) indicates a disconnect between development of research focused knowledge ecosystems and private sectorled business ecosystems. Policy efforts have primarily focused on the creation of knowledge ecosystems, with the assumption that this will automatically lead to the development of business ecosystems.…”

Business ecosystem research agenda: more dynamic, more embedded, and more internationalized

“…A BE, in particular a healthy one, is believed to reinvent value (Kandiah and Gossain 1998;Li 2009;Mäkinen and Dedehayir 2012) and brings competitive advantages to companies participating in it (Adner 2006;Clarysse et al 2014) by initiating, identifying, and integrating stakeholders to create value in the ecosystem (Rong et al 2015b;Winter et al 2017). The concept of BE is also believed to be capable of better explaining multi-sided business competition (Boudreau and Lakhani 2009;Eisenmann et al 2006).…”

“…Previous studies have mainly focused on value creation and capture in the BE (Adner and Kapoor 2010;Ceccagnoli et al 2012;Clarysse et al 2014), which also largely overlaps with business model studies (Amit and Zott 2001;Baden-Fuller and Haefliger 2013;Teece 2010). However, they seem to have paid less attention to the embedded resource (Avgerou and Li 2013;Granovetter 1985) around the established value chain or platform ecosystem.…”

Q&A. Innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Research: Where Are We Now and How Do We Move Forward?

“…Second, network theory and social networks were seen as another promising theoretical foundation. Indeed, much of the ecosystem literature draws from network literature, including ecosystem definitions involving the concept of "network" (Adner & Kapoor, 2010), as well as utilizing social network analysis to examine innovation ecosystem structures (Clarysse et al, 2014;Still et al, 2014). A critical challenge for this approach is to distinguish ecosystem studies from network studies: if there is no difference, do we need a new concept?…”