Conceptualising innovation platforms through innovation ecosystems perspective

Abstract

Innovation ecosystems are built around a central node which can be an innovation platform. An innovation platform is a space of interaction for stakeholders to interact and develop innovations in a collective manner. Analysis of innovation platforms has been mainly through value chain and innovation system perspectives. However innovation ecosystems perspective offers great insights on how innovations can be co-created. This study develops a framework for innovation platforms from the innovation ecosystem perspective. The study used multi-disciplinary literature on innovation ecosystems and innovation platforms. From ecosystem perspective formation of ecosystems can be sub divided between scoping and planning. Scoping phase has been found to consist of strategic policies definition and ecosystem strategic analysis activities. Planning phase activities include ecosystem design, ecosystem preparedness, recruiting actors and providing physical infrastructure. Functioning activities for co-creation can be coordinated by a strategy with five stages namely product development, product manufacturing, market formation & management, value appropriation and feedback generation. This paper outlines a framework that can be used by innovation ecosystem facilitators to evaluate their platforms and develop management tools for their specific contexts.