Establishing and managing membership-based open innovation ecosystems

Abstract

Open innovation ecosystems are a relatively new concept in the business world, yet one that has gained considerable momentum in the past years. To better understand their dynamics, the current thesis (jointly developed with Seppe Croonen) investigates four such prominent membership-based ecosystems in the Flanders area in Belgium ' namely: FlandersBio, VOKA Health Community, Smartgrids Flanders and FISCH.

While Seppe Croonen investigated the role played by the government in these four settings, my analysis addresses the issue on how to successfully establish and manage such an innovation ecosystem. Some of the research questions answered include: What factors are needed to set up an ecosystem? How does an ecosystem evolve? How does an ecosystem create value? And which dynamics can be observed between orchestrator and members? The main findings of the empirical research reveal that: (1) establishing an membership-based ecosystem is done with the help of government or other already existing networks once a feasibility study has been carried through, (2) the role of the orchestrator in the ecosystems is unique yet dynamic for each setting, and crucial in the value-creation process and (3) a shared vision of the ecosystem members is essential for success.