Aims and Objectives
Ecosystem perspectives focus on dynamic interactions between actors in a given environment and how these interactions develop over time (Adner, 2017). The ecosystem lens is a popular conceptual and metaphorical tool applied to many disciplines, including management, entrepreneurship, and innovation (Autio, 2022; Cetindamar et al., 2023).
The ecosystems view has advanced beyond the research on economic geography, clusters, and regional or national innovation systems (Fernandes et al., 2021). More recently, the constructs of ecosystems were described as models comprising a specific space and place, for example, national innovation ecosystems, regional innovation ecosystems, industrial innovation ecosystems, and enterprise innovation ecosystems (Jiang et al., 2019). Ecosystems literature recognizes that innovation processes in these regions involve a collective effort of various actors working within particular institutional arrangements (Gifford et al., 2021), and public policies shape such institutional arrangements. Therefore, it is no surprise that policymakers show great interest in ecosystem concepts because they offer a more holistic and integrated guide for entrepreneurial and innovation activities (Daniel et al., 2022).
Despite all the research on road mapping and ‘stock-taking’ of innovation systems and policies, the performance measurement that could help policymakers and stakeholders in an ecosystem in their decisions is unclear (de Vasconcelos Gomes et al., 2021). Studies attempting to link measurements of innovation ecosystems are at their early stage (Borrás & Edler, 2020). Simultaneously, there are increasing calls for more research to understand the orchestration of ecosystems at a meso level (Autio, 2022; Han et al., 2022; Muñoz et al., 2020).
We call for high-quality research studies from academia, industry, governments, and non-profits, especially collaborations among these groups, to address how an innovation ecosystem performs. We welcome the examination of the evaluation of ecosystems at the societal, organizational, group/team, and individual levels of analysis. We solicit case studies, surveys, experiments, qualitative research, and collaborative action research among academics, executives, and policymakers that illustrate innovative approaches, resolutions, and solutions to potential metrics, frameworks, and data regarding the challenges and opportunities of measuring innovation ecosystem performance. We especially seek papers that offer theoretical models combined with evidence of the consequences or findings of observations related to these models that could expand technology and innovation management discipline in tackling the complexity of innovation.
Suggested topics are, but are not limited to, the following areas:
- Positivist, interpretive, and critical examinations of the innovation ecosystem at the organizational and system level
- Impacts of the performance of innovation ecosystems on diverse stakeholders inhabited within
- Novel ways for measuring and quantifying metrics for assessing the innovation ecosystems
- New theories in conceptualizing innovation ecosystems
- Empirical studies in improving innovation ecosystem performance in various countries
- Impacts of organizational internal and external factors on the success of innovation ecosystems
- Opportunities and challenges of advancing how innovation ecosystems perform
- Ethical and legal issues of managing innovation ecosystems
Notes for Prospective Authors:
Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.
Conference papers are only submitted if the paper has been completely re-written and if appropriate written permissions have been obtained from any copyright holders of the original paper.
Manuscripts should be submitted through the publisher’s online system. Submissions will be reviewed according to the journal’s rigorous standards and procedures through double-blind peer review by at least two qualified reviewers.
Submission Process
This special issue is in collaboration with the 2024 Innovation and Product Development Management Conference held June 5-7, 2024, in Dublin Ireland. The conference will host a Special Track to present papers submitted for this call. All papers submitted to IPDMC will receive feedback from an experienced team to improve quality before authors submit them to IEEE Engineering Management. IPDMC abstracts are due December 1, 2023 or full papers are due April 1, 2024.
There are two ways to submit manuscripts. Please note the different timelines. IEEE Engineering Management also welcomes special issue submissions from authors not involved with IPDMC.
Please prepare the manuscript according to IEEE-TEM’s guidelines (http://www.ieee-tems.org/guidelines-for-authors) and submit it to the journal’s Manuscript Central site (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tem-ieee). Please upload the paper to the IEEE TEM Editorial Manager clearly indicating it is a submission for the IEEE TEM Special Issue on “The Complexity of Evaluating the Performance in Innovation Ecosystems.”
Selected References
Adner, R. (2017). Ecosystem as structure. Journal of Management, 43, 39–58.
Alpha Beta (2020). Australia’s deep tech opportunity: Insights from the Cicada Innovations journey.
Audretsch, D. B, Belitski, M., & Cherkas, N. (2021). Entrepreneurial ecosystems in cities: The role of institutions. PLoS ONE, 16(3): e0247609.
Autio, E. (2022). Orchestrating ecosystems: a multi-layered framework. Innovation: Organization and Management, 24(1), 96–109.
Autio, E., & Rannikko, H. (2016). Retaining winners: Can policy boost high-growth entrepreneurship? Research Policy, 45(1), 42-55.
Beaudry, C., Burger-Helmchen, T., & Cohendet, P. (2021). Editorial: Innovation policies and practices within innovation ecosystems. Industry and Innovation, 28(5), 535-44.
Ben-Hafaïedh, C. & Hamelin, A. 2022. Questioning the Growth Dogma: A Replication Study. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. 10422587211059991.
Boyer, J. (2020). Toward an evolutionary and sustainability perspective of the innovation ecosystem. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083232
Cetindamar, D., Renando, C., Bliemel, M., De Klerk, S. 2023, “The Evolution of the Australian Start-up and Innovation Ecosystem: Mapping Policy Developments, Key Actors, Activities, and Artefacts.” Science, Technology and Society.
Daniel, L. J., de Villiers Scheepers, M. J., Miles, M. P. and de Klerk, S. (2022). Understanding entrepreneurial ecosystems using complex adaptive systems theory. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, pp.1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2022.2083691
de Vasconcelos Gomes, L. A., Fleury, A. L., de Oliveira, M. G., & Facin, A. L. F. (2021). Ecosystem policy roadmapping. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120885
Fernandes, C., Farinha, L., Ferreira, J.J., Asheim, B. & Rutten, R. (2021). Regional innovation systems. Regional studies, 55(3), 377-89.
Global Innovation Index (GII) (2022). Global Innovation Index 2022. https://www.globalinnovationindex.org/about-gii#reports
Granstrand, O. & Holgersson, M. (2020). Innovation ecosystems: A conceptual review and a new definition. Technovation, 90-91, 1–12.
Gu, Y., Hu, L., Zhang, H., & Hou, C. (2021). Innovation ecosystem research: Emerging trends and future research. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011458
Han, J., Zhou, H., Lowik, S., & Weerd-Nederhof, P. (2022). Enhancing the understanding of ecosystems under innovation management context. Industrial Marketing Management, 106, 112–38.
Hou, H. & Shi, Y. (2021). Ecosystem-as-structure and ecosystem-as-coevolution: A constructive examination. Technovation. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316678
Jiang, S., Hu, Y., & Wang, Z. (2019). Core firm based view on the mechanism of constructing an enterprise innovation ecosystem. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11113108
Klimas, P. & Czakon, W. (2022). Species in the wild: a typology of innovation ecosystems. Review of Managerial Science, 16, 249–82.
Lammers, T., Cetindamar, D., & Borkert, M., (2021). A digital tale of two cities – Exploring the dynamics of the artificial intelligence ecosystems in Berlin and Sydney. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910564
Moore, J.F. (2006). Business ecosystems and the view from the firm. Antitrust Bulletin, 51, 31–75.
Muñoz, P., Kibler, E., Mandakovic, V., & Amoros, J. (2020). Local entrepreneurial ecosystems as configural narratives. Research Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2020.104065
North, D. C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change, and economic performance. Cambridge university press.
Suseno, Y. & Standing, C. (2018). The systems perspective of national innovation ecosystems. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 35(3), 282–307.
Zheng, X. & Cai, Y. (2022). Transforming Innovation Systems into Innovation Ecosystems. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127520
Guest Editors
A/Prof. Dilek Cetindamar
Scopus ID: 0000-0002-0457-3258
A/Prof. Dilek Cetindamar is the Director of Techcelerator at the Faculty of Engineering and IT and an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. She worked at many universities, including Case Western Reserve University (USA), Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), and Sabanci University (Turkey). She has more than 200 publications, including 10 books and +65 journal articles in international refereed journals. She is the Senior Department Editor for Technology Management at IEEE-TEM. She has published in international journals She received PICMET Fellow Award in 2019, the best book award from the International Association for Management of Technology in 2012, and an “encouragement award” from the Turkish Academy of Sciences in 2003.
A/Prof. Martin Bliemel
Scopus ID: 0000-0002-5160-0888
A/Prof. Martin Bliemel is the Director of Research at TD School (ex Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Martin’s research interests include entrepreneurial networks, accelerators, education, research commercialization, entrepreneurial ecosystems, and the entrepreneurial university. In particular, his work on accelerators played a key role in the design of the $23m Incubator Support Programme by the Department of Industry, and the evaluation of the $150m Southern Cross Renewable Energy Fund by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) who are now acting on our recommendations. Martin’s research has been published in several prestigious journals including Nature Nanotechnology, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Technovation, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Education+Training, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, and the Entrepreneurship Research Journal where one of his articles on entrepreneurship education is ERJ’s most downloaded article.
Prof. Nuran Acur
Scopus ID: 0000-0002-9655-0343
Prof. Nuran Acur is currently Professor of Innovation Management in the Adam Smith Business School. She previously worked at Strathclyde University (UK), Ozyegin University (Turkey), Aalborg University (Denmark), and Bilkent University (Turkey). She has also held Visiting Scholar positions at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), at the London Business School (UK) and Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). She is vice-chair Innovation and Product Development Conference board. Dr. Acur has published award winning, theory-driven, policy – and practice – relevant articles across the fields of technology innovation, open innovation, digital innovation and innovation strategy. Her current research examines emerging innovation trends (such as artificial intelligence, 5G) and their implications in the organisations in different sectors (i.e., health, telecommunications, public and third sector) and impacts into the society. She is also working on responsible innovation approaches that will maximise societal benefit by enhancing productivity and developing ethical and well-regulated Innovation approaches for science, technology, engineering and business.
A/Prof. Aylin Ates
A/Prof. Aylin Ates is an Associate Professor in Strategy at the University of Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, UK. She is closely involved with business practice and policy through research projects, professional education programs, and various speaker and advisory roles. Aylin’s core contribution to knowledge is in the field of the small and medium enterprise (SME) strategy and resilience. By bridging the theories of strategy and performance management to enhance our knowledge of how to build adaptive and resilient high-tech, manufacturing SMEs, she has developed an international reputation. Her expertise in SME viability and resilience is recognised globally and informed policy at the international level. She authored 55+ high-quality publications in prominent management journals such as Technological Forecasting and Social Change. She is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management
Prof. Aonghus McNabola
Prof. McNabola is a Professor in Energy and the Environment at the Dept of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, TCD. His research interests lie in the field of Environmental Fluid Dynamics where he has applied this expertise in air pollution, energy efficiency and/or water services sectors. He has been active in this field of research for over 15 years. He is a Visiting Reader at the Global Centre for Air Research(GCARE), at the Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Surrey, UK. He is also a Colaborador Honorario (Adjunct Professor) at the Hydraulic division of the Agronomy Department at the University of Córdoba, Spain. Prof. McNabola is an Associate Editor for the international journal, Transport Research Part D: Transport and the Environment. He is also a regular reviewer for journals such as Renewable Energy, Atmospheric Environment, Water Resources Management, etc. He has a h-index of 37 and an i-10 index of 86.
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