Rediscovering innovation processes in ecosystem settings: the role of ecosystem strategy in shaping new innovation processes

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Lucas Emmanuel Nascimento
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Texto Completo: https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/12/12139/tde-29042024-150923/
• topic: Ecossistemas de inovação; Gestão da inovação; Innovation ecosystems; Innovation management; Innovation processes; PLS-SEM; PLS-SEM; Processos de inovação; Revisão sistemática da literatura; Systematic literature review

The literature on innovation processes has taken a contingency view of the innovation activity by arguing that the processes of idea generation, selection, development, and diffusion assume unique configurations according to the different contexts, settings, and strategies. More recently, innovation scholars are investigating the notion of ecosystem, which refers to a structure of interdependent, yet dependent actors who collectively work together to materialize the value proposition. Research has shown how new firms moving towards competing via ecosystems are changing their innovation processes to deal with it. However, research on innovation processes in ecosystem settings is still scattered, lacking a theoretical framework that shows how innovation processes occur in ecosystem settings. Additionally, while research provides evidence that strategy affects the innovation processes, we still have limited insights into how a strategy designed to address the ecosystem affects the development of new or the adaptation of existing innovation processes. In this sense, the guiding question of this research is \"what are the contingencies that explain variances of innovation processes in ecosystem settings?\". To address this question, this research seeks to explore the missing link between innovation processes and ecosystems by employing two research methodologies. First, a systematic literature review is conducted to capture insights on the contingencies that explain the variations in innovation processes in the ecosystem and the different types of innovation processes. The main insight from the literature review is that strategy shapes how firms define and deal with multiple innovation processes. Second, based on a survey of 268 individuals involved in the innovation activities of multiple firms, this research explored the link between ecosystem strategy and innovation processes. Based on the confirmation of the 6 hypotheses using PLS-SEM, this research provides an empirical examination of ecosystem strategy as a contingency that explains variations in innovation processes. Finally, this paper provides a discussion of the findings and concludes with limitations and suggestions for future studies to advance the understanding of innovation processes in ecosystem settings.