Innovation Systems and Ecosystems: A Review and Synthesis

The ecosystem approach to innovation and business ecosystem has emerged as prominent research avenue departing from the extant literature on innovation and management. The broad adoption of ecosystem terminology has increased the conceptual ambiguity of the terminology to where ecosystems are used fairly loosely, even as buzz or decoration to the core message. This study tackles the use of ecosystem terminology and structures the conceptual frame for the field, identifying definitions of an innovation ecosystem and how the concept has been founded in previous literature. Our results highlight how the ecosystem theory, while showing value adding elements, rests heavily on a few seminal works, but both empirical and conceptual advancements are needed before a coherent theory.