O objetivo do presente estudo foi levantar o modelo de formação do ecossistema de inovação que orbita as incubadoras integrantes da rede alvo, AGROINNCUBA, identificando as variáveis que compõem o ecossistema e avaliando a resultante deste processo no desempenho de empresas inovadoras voltadas para o agronegócio. A fim de caracterizar o modelo de formação de cada ecossistema de inovação da rede, a metodologia utilizada foi baseada em pesquisa quantitativa (análise multivariada) com os Coordenadores e empreendedores das incubadoras filiadas à AGROINNCUBA, através de um questionário com respostas abertas e fechadas aplicado online via Google formulários, além de entrevistas com os gestores das incubadoras e parques participantes. Os atores dos ecossistemas de inovação da rede AGROINNCUBA, têm desenvolvido uma cultura direcionada a inovação, dedicando-se a pensar e agir de forma a gerir o conhecimento por meio da tecnologia da informação, da organização do trabalho, da gestão da inovação, gestão de pessoas e de recursos, possibilitando assim ambientes que estimulem a criatividade, a viabilização de talentos, contribuindo para o seu desenvolvimento e fortalecimento. Diante do levantamento realizado para a verificação da existência de um ecossistema de inovação estabelecido ao redor das incubadoras e parques científicos da rede AGROINNCUBA, pode-se afirmar que este conjunto de atores tem contribuído para a geração de novos negócios inovadores, assim, promovendo o desenvolvimento econômico e social. / The objective of the present study was to analyze the formation model of the innovation ecosystem that orbits the incubators of the target network, AGROINNCUBA, identifying the variables that compose the ecosystem and evaluating the resulting process in performance of innovative agribusiness companies. In order to characterize the formation model of each innovation ecosystem, the methodology used was based on quantitative (multivariate analysis) and qualitative (discourse analysis) research with coordinators and entrepreneurs from the incubators affiliated with the AGROINNCUBA, through a questionnaire with open and closed responses applied online via Google forms and interviews with the managers of the participating incubators. The actors of the innovation ecosystems of the AGROINNCUBA network, have developed a culture directed to innovation, dedicating themselves to thinking and acting in order to manage knowledge through information technology, work organization, Innovation management, Management of people and resources, thus enabling environments that stimulate creativity, the feasibility of talents, contributing to their development and strengthening. In view of the survey carried out to verify the existence of an innovation ecosystem established around the incubators and scientific parks of the AGROINNCUBA network, it can be affirmed that this set of actors has contributed to the generation of new Innovative business, thus promoting economic and social development.

In this dissertation, I systematically explore the nature and role of two firm capabilities: absorptive capacity (or external learning capability) and technological capability. I examine how firm capability interacts with intra-firm and industry factors, and how it impacts organizational outcomes. In the first paper, I review literature on absorptive capacity and distill its distinct effect on various organizational outcomes. I identify key theoretical underpinnings behind the diverse conceptualizations of absorptive capacity and their corresponding measures, and use meta-analytical techniques to synthesize the effects of absorptive capacity. The second and third papers of my dissertation examine how technological capability interacts with certain internal and external contingency factors in influencing firm innovation and industry evolution. In the second paper, I take an intra-firm focus, and I identify managerial cognition as an important internal factor that impacts the relationship between technological capability and innovation. More specifically, I study how a firm's technological competence interacts with managerial experience in shaping that firm's innovation choices. Using data from the satellite industry, I show that diversity and relatedness of technological resource, as well as CEO experience, work differently in shaping product versus application innovations. In the third paper, I investigate how capabilities beyond focal technology producers influence industry evolution. Based on longitudinal analyses of the evolution of the satellite industry, I show that complementors, component suppliers, and customers are important external factors that shape industry evolution. Overall, my dissertation demonstrates the interrelated roles of firm capability, managerial cognition, and innovation ecosystem on firm and industry-level outcomes. / Ph. D.

Text in English / The role that locally relevant services and content can play in the development of societies cannot be underestimated. The proliferation of mobile phones in Africa’s developing countries is a significant enabler, which provides access to such locally relevant services and content. Mobile applications have the potential to support the development of the African continent through bolstering the main mechanisms of innovation, inclusion and efficiency. This has been demonstrated by instances of increased literacy, improved access to health care, banking, crowd sourcing and provision of farming and/or agricultural assistance. Successful cases of such mobile-based services include Kenya’s M-Pesa, which has allowed millions of rural people, who do not have access to traditional banking facilities, to send and receive money as well as pay utility bills and school fees. The development of similar innovative and locally relevant mobile-based solutions, which is currently considered to be in its infancy, is key to improving the lives of people in developing countries. This study identifies the essential components of an innovation ecosystem, for the development and presentation of a Mobile Applications Innovation Ecosystem Framework for Botswana. An innovation ecosystem enables effective interaction amongst entrepreneurs, companies, universities, research organisations, investors and government agencies towards maximising economic impact and potential. To gain a practical understanding of the context in which locally relevant mobile-based services can be developed, the study adopted a pragmatic research approach. Through combining the 4Cs Framework for ICT and the systems theory’s Triple Helix Model of Innovation, the study proceeded to develop the framework using a Design Science Research (DSR) methodology. DSR guided the identification of the components, which make up the mobile applications innovation ecosystem within government, industry and higher education sectors, as extracted from the literature review. This process facilitated initial framework designs, which were demonstrated to and evaluated by conveniently sampled stakeholders from relevant helices. Thereafter a synthesised framework was presented for evaluation by knowledgeable professionals from the mobile applications innovation ecosystem. The study contributes to the theoretical knowledgebase by presenting a theoretical framework for understanding ICT4D innovation frameworks and mobile applications / School of Computing / Ph. D. (Information Systems)

Given the increasing complexity of global ecological and social problems, innovation plays a key role in solutions for sustainable development. Within innovation ecosystems, intermediaries such as innovation hubs play an important part in influencing other actors like startups, investors and policymakers to create solutions for change. Therefore, it is essential that innovation hubs incorporate sustainability into their practices, if they are to contribute to addressing the Global Sustainability Challenge (GSC).   To see how this could be done, this study examines the case of the Venture Café Global Network (VCGN) a type of sector agnostic innovation hub. The study used a multi-method qualitative approach. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with different players in the innovation ecosystem, as well as with actors from within VCGN, and through a documentary analysis.   The results and discussion are presented according to certain overarching themes that emerged from the interviews and answer the research questions. Along with a longer list of recommendations, this study concludes that the adoption of a shared organisational definition of sustainability is the bedrock for any sustainability integration and vital for innovation hubs to impact other actors in their innovation ecosystems, to address the GSC.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore the emergence of ecosystemic business models. Ecosystemic thinking has surfaced as a concept to explain the complexity and interconnected nature of modern business. It reflects a fundamental change in the way we view innovations in particular. Innovations are no longer considered to rise within organizational boundaries alone. Modern business is characterized by a diversity of innovation stakeholders from private and public backgrounds, from large organizations to users and citizens. To further the understanding on the research phenomenon of ecosystemic business models, this study relies on two streams of research: Open innovation and business model research. These fields of academic literature mirror well the paradigmatic shift on how the dynamism and change of modern, interconnected business context impacts innovations, value creation and capture and subsequent competitive advantage. The empirical part of this study has been conducted as qualitative case studies. Also conceptual frameworks have been based on empirical data. Drawing from ecosystem analogy, this study investigates different types of ecosystemic contexts, namely that of business ecosystems and innovation ecosystems, in order to determine not only how and why business models emerge, but also how they develop and transform in such a context. An ecosystemic view on business models emphasizes that value co-creation and co-capture need to be steered by a common motive based on mutually connected opportunities and collective value proposition. This research finds that in a complex, multileveled configuration of ecosystems, striving for synergy within the ecosystem is a prerequisite for successful building of ecosystemic value and competitive advantage as a whole. The results of the study indicate that business models are valid not only at organizational level but at the ecosystemic level as well, as ecosystem synergy and successful orchestration can be achieved through utilizing the ecosystemic business model. / Tiivistelmä Tässä tutkimuksessa esitellään ekosysteemisten liiketoimintamallien käsite ja tarkastellaan ekosysteemisten liiketoimintamallien syntyä. Liiketoimintakontekstin monimutkaisuutta ja monitahoisuutta selitetään yhä useammin ekosysteemisen ajattelun avulla. Innovaatioiden ei nähdä syntyvän enää vain yritysten rajojen sisällä, vaan moderniin liiketoimintakontekstiin kuuluu monia eri sidosryhmiä yksityisistä julkisiin toimijoihin, suuryrityksistä yksittäisiin kuluttajiin ja kansalaisiin. Lisätäkseen ymmärrystä ekosysteemisistä liiketoimintamalleista, tämä tutkimus nojaa kahteen tutkimusalueeseen; avoimeen innovaatioon ja liiketoimintamalleihin. Näiden tutkimusnäkökulmien katsotaan peilaavan hyvin modernin liiketoimintakontekstin dynamiikkaa, muutosta ja näiden vaikutusta innovaatioihin, arvon luomiseen ja hyödyntämiseen, sekä kilpailuetuun. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osuus on toteutettu laadullisena tapaustutkimuksena. Myös käsitteelliset julkaisut pohjautuvat empiiriseen dataan. Määrittääkseen miten ja miksi ekosysteemiset liiketoimintamallit syntyvät, sekä selvittääkseen kuinka ne kehittyvät ja muuttuvat, tämä väitöskirjatutimus kohdistuu erilaisiin ekosysteemisiin konteksteihin, erityisesti liiketoimintaekosysteemeihin ja innovaatioekosysteemeihin. Ekosysteeminen liiketoimintamalli korostaa, että arvon yhteinen luominen ja hyödyntäminen tulee perustua yhdessä määriteltyyn mahdollisuuteen ja kollektiiviseen arvolupaukseen. Tämä tutkimus osoittaa, että mutkikkaissa, monitahoisissa ekosysteemeissä, synergia on edellytys ekosysteemisen arvon ja kokonaiskilpailuedun rakentamiselle. Tutkimuksen tulokset indikoivat, että liiketoimintamalliajattelu pätee ei vain organisaation, mutta myös ekosysteemin tasolla, sillä ekosysteemin synergiaa ja onnistunutta orkestrointia voidaan edistää liiketoimintamallia hyödyntämällä.

Henkel's New Business team is a corporate venturing unit that explores corporate entrepreneurial activities on behalf of Henkel Adhesives Technologies. The new business ideas are implemented through one of these models: incubator, venturing or innovation ecosystem. In current practice, there is no systematic framework in place to choose the implementation model. The goal of the thesis is to propose a framework for choosing the most appropriate model for implementation of a new business idea in Henkel. The thesis approaches the topic on practical and theoretical grounds. The first part outlines the related literature and theoretical focus. The literature covers definitions and theories of incubator, corporate venturing, corporate venture capital, innovation ecosystem and investment decision-making process. The practical approach relates to the company case studies of Philips, 3M and BASF. In this thesis, each model is analyzed based on a broad literature review, case studies and personal interviews with experts. The second part is the main discussion and analysis of the topic assembling with practical examples in Henkel. It comes to a recommendation that Henkel should prioritize and choose the most appropriate model for the new business proposal after the "concept scoping" stage, and before detailed investigation. It also proposes a scorecard framework that entails 14 key criteria for choosing the mode: degree of market competition, potential disruptiveness, technological risk, time to market, strategic alignment, degree of customization, dependency of related industries, technological newness of related industries, idea source, protectability of intellectual property, internal expertise, technological competence, commercial competence and parenting advantages. Furthermore, a new business developing strategy matrix is constructed based on two dimensions: strategic importance and operational relatedness. It is to further check the accuracy and validity of the results from the scorecard framework. Finally, it is suggested that future research can be done to improve the framework by adding weightings and scale of each criteria within the framework.

Entrepreneurship and start-ups are important factors for economic growth and development. As the surrounding innovation ecosystem is becoming increasingly complex, it gets more difficult for entrepreneurs to find the right path. Incubators are important when it comes to facilitating and supporting new ventures. In this research, we conducted 19 semi-structured interviews of which five were held with public incubators, four with private incubators, nine with incubatees and one with Vinnova (a government authority that plays a huge part within the existence of public incubators) in order to gain an understanding of the interplay of the incubation process and the entrepreneurial process. As for analyzing the collected data we used a thematic analysis with an inductive approach. Throughout the coding process, we extracted the following three main topics: role of an incubator, incubation process and interplay. However, a distinction between public and private incubators was approved as applicable that determines the incubators’ purpose, objectives and operations. Our findings suggest that incubators play an important role in supporting and guiding the start-ups by transferring knowledge and asking the right questions as a fundament for the further entrepreneurial process. Continuous communication and expectation management are shown as crucial throughout the interplay of the two processes. Lastly, the disconnection from the incubatees should be done carefully, e.g. through a non-proactive aftercare.

Companies increasingly rely on external partners when starting their innovation initiatives. Emergent innovation ecosystems of heterogeneous actors proved to be successful in leveraging combined competence for the creation of the new ventures. However, constantly changing environment of simultaneous competition and cooperation – coopetition, presents a challenge for the ecosystem management. Drawing on the network orchestration and coopetition research, I analyze management practices and coopetition dynamics in the digital creative industry in Northern Sweden. Based on the analysis, I offer two main contributions. First, I provide a detailed account of innovation ecosystem orchestration within the digital creative industry, including its chronological evolution and the challenges related to it. Second, the application of coopetition notion to the innovation ecosystem context brings forward tensions that should be further scrutinized in order to develop better management practices for such innovation networks.

Utifrån en föränderlig omvärld har allt fler organisationer insett att de inte kan agera oberoende av omgivningen. Förändringarna beskrivs ofta i termer av mer intensiv konkurrensen, kortare livscykler för produkter och tjänster samt ständig teknikutveckling. Internet och den digitala transformationen har dessutom skapat en övergång till den digitala ekonomin vilket omvandlat grundläggande antaganden för flertalet affärsmodeller. Den intensifierade konkurrensen, teknologiska utvecklingen och ökade rörligheten av kunskap har resulterat i att allt fler organisationer måste analysera sitt sätt att organisera och styra innovationsarbetet för att öka innovationsförmågan. Mot bakgrund av de förändrade spelreglerna bör det ifrågasättas om interna innovationsprocesser är den mest framgångsrika strategin för att generera förutsättningar för en ökad innovationsförmåga. I linje med detta visar en tydlig trend under de senare åren att allt fler organisationer utforskar och efterfrågar kunskap från ett omfångsrikare spektrum av källor än tidigare. Detta åskådliggörs genom hur allt fler organisationer utnyttjar kunskapsflöden från nätverk utanför den egna organisationens gränser. Innovationsprocesser som fångar kunskapsflöden utifrån ett nätverkssynsätt ger upphov till nya potentiella fördelar för innovationsförmågan. En av de möjliga fördelarna beskrivs som kombinationen av interna och externa kunskaper. Förskjutningen från interna till mer öppna innovationsprocesser, innebär dock att innovationsstyrningen måste förändras. Med öppna innovationsprocesser har det uppdagats nya utmaningar, något som till stor del grundas i den bärande idén om involvering av flertalet individer. En central utmaning handlar om att styra öppna innovationsprocesser utan formell auktoritet över samtliga individer. Syftet med denna studie har därmed varit att identifiera och analysera vad som kännetecknar öppna innovationsprocesser och styrningsaspekterna för att öka innovationsförmågan. Utifrån en litteraturstudie upprättades ett styrningskoncept för att analysera, förklara och utveckla begrepp inom öppna innovationsprocesser. Styrningskonceptet kan beskrivas som ett paraply under vilket författaren samlar praktiska aspekter som kan utnyttjas på olika sätt för att styra en öppen innovationsprocess med målsättningen att öka innovationsförmågan. Den empiriska delen omfattar en fallstudie innehållande nio stycken intervjuer av innovationsstyrningen inom Lindholmen Science Park. Det är en internationell samverkansmiljö för forskning och innovation. Resultatet påvisar vikten av en flexibel styrning där fokus riktas mot ständig följsamhet gentemot den externa kontexten. Dessutom poängteras ledningen av till synes oförenliga paradoxer, där vikten av att vara ”både och” för att hantera olika motsatsförhållanden konstateras som viktigt. Dessutom fastslås betydelsen av ledare som frigör den inneboende innovationskraften genom nyfikenheten att lära och ett varaktigt fokus på att etablera relationer för att bygga tillit. / Based on a changing environment, more organizations have realized that they cant act independently of the environment. The changes are often described in terms of more intense competition, shorter life cycles for products and services and constant technology development. Internet and digital transformation has also created a transition to the digital economy which transforms assumptions for most business models. Intensified competition, technological development and increased mobility of knowledge, has resulted in that more organizations need to analyze the way they organize and manage innovation efforts to increase the capacity for innovation. In view of the changing rules of the game, it should be questioned whether internal innovation processes are the most successful strategy to generate conditions for increased innovation capabilities. In line with this, a clear trend in recent years points out that more organizations explore and demand knowledge from a wider range of sources than before. This is illustrated by how more organizations utilize knowledge flows from networks beyond the boundaries of their own organization. Innovation processes that capture knowledge flows based on a networking perspective gives new potential benefits for the innovation capabilities. One of the possible benefits is described as the combination of internal and external knowledge. However, the shift from internal to more open innovation processes, means that the innovation management must change. With open innovation processes, new challenges has been discovered, largely based on the supportive idea of involving more individuals. A central challenge is to control open innovation processes without formal authority over all individuals. Thus, the purpose of this study has been to identify and analyze what characterizes open innovation processes and governance aspects in order to increase the innovation capabilities. Based on a literature study, a management concept was established to analyze, explain and develop concepts in open innovation processes. The management concept can be described as an umbrella under which the author brings together practical aspects that can be utilized in different ways to manage an open innovation process with the aim of increasing innovation capabilities. The empirical part comprises a case study containing nine interviews of the innovation management within Lindholmen Science Park. It is an international environment for research and innovation. The result demonstrates the importance of flexible governance, focusing on constant compliance with the external context. In addition, the management of seemingly incompatible paradoxes is poached, where the importance of dealing with different opposites is found important. In addition, the result underline the importance of leaders who releases the inherent power of innovation by curiosity for learning and a sustained focus on establishing relationships to build trust.

The purpose of this study is to explore the engagement in an innovation ecosystem for knowledge co-creation. It aims at exploring the various aspects of ecosystems, innovation, and knowledge which can drive or hinder actors to engage in collaboration in an innovation ecosystem. A single case study was selected as a research strategy (The OSMaaS project), as it provided us the opportunity to analyze an innovation ecosystem with specific characteristics that few has considered before. Semi-structured interview was used as data collectiontechnique since this interview method offered us the required flexibility to explore in depth theindividual experiences lived during the process of evaluating whether to engage or not to the OSMaaS project. Consequently, a hybrid approach of thematic analysis was selected as methodfor data analysis as it allowed us to interact with the interviewees or the empirical world, theconcepts regarding innovation and ecosystems or theory, and the OSMaaS project or the case study. The findings show that aspects of ecosystems, innovation and Knowledge co-creation aspects such as co-opetition, ecosystem governance and structure, proximity, relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability, competitive advantage, and product development contain factors driving and hindering actors’ engagement in aninnovation ecosystem. These factors are explained within this study and show what have droveand hindered actors to engage in the OSMaaS project.