Transforming Ecosystems: Facilitating Sustainable Innovations Through the Lineage of Exploratory Projects

Abstract

Radical innovations are essential for the sustainable transition of society; however, such innovations are struggling to establish a solid position in the ecosystem. Through a case study, the influence of the ecosystem on a radical, sustainable innovation is investigated. The study shows that the ecosystem causes bottleneck challenges for the innovation and that a lineage of exploratory projects is essential to transforming the ecosystem and thereby supporting the breakthrough of the innovation. A model for lineage ecosystem management is proposed, extending and contributing to the multiproject lineage management approach, with a particular focus on radical, sustainable innovations.

Exploring Innovation Ecosystem of Incumbents in the Face of Technological Discontinuities: Automobile Firms

“…A biological concept of the ecosystem has been utilized to address complex interdependence and complementary relationships among organizations beyond their industries, first termed the business ecosystem by Moore [12,19,20]. Moore (1993Moore ( , 1996 proposed that a business ecosystem describes the organizational and individual networks that cooperatively and competitively develop valuable products and services for customers [12,20]. The term also emphasizes the role of business actors driven by market forces in establishing value networks through evolving and interacting with other actors in the ecosystem [20,21,29].…”

“…When technological changes are discontinuous and, therefore, incompatible with the incumbent ecosystem, management becomes complex and uncertain, which is a key challenge for sustainability [12,13]. In such environments, the incumbents must compete against new entrants armed with disruptive technologies and cooperate with various ecosystems' complementors to avoid being overthrown from their dominant positions in the market.…”

Sustainability Transition through Dynamics of Circular Construction Projects

“…Furthermore, in such projects, actors from different organizations bring along different work practices, narratives, norms, and values that shape changes [15]. Especially, "outsiders" who operate according to entirely different norms and values can bring disruptive innovation in construction projects [39]. This concept of outsiders can take shape as new organizations that play roles in construction projects, but can also be manifested by incorporation of new employees within companies dominated by regime institutions.…”

Exploring Mission-Oriented Innovation Ecosystems for Sustainability: Towards a Literature-Based Typology

“…Green Innovation Ecosystems: Described in seven papers, green innovation ecosystems are defined by their strong focus on environmental sustainability, while applying a solution level approach. For such ecosystems, numerous examples aiming at developing 'green' or 'cleaner' technologies, for instance in the areas of energy production [105,106], construction [107] or mobility [108], could be listed. Within green innovation ecosystems, firms are considered the ecosystem leaders and primary solution drivers, not least reflected by the fact that all seven papers are analyzing ecosystems from a focal firm perspective.…”

“…Within green innovation ecosystems, firms are considered the ecosystem leaders and primary solution drivers, not least reflected by the fact that all seven papers are analyzing ecosystems from a focal firm perspective. Over the course of the innovation process, these ecosystem leaders consult and incorporate various stakeholders, for two reasons [107,108]: according to Yarahmadi and Higgins [74], they aim at leveraging external competences on the one hand, whilst trying to comply with (environmental) regulations and obtain legitimacy on the other. With regard to the latter cooperation rationale, the literature particularly highlights the importance of governments, as regulators, and in some cases of civil society organizations and NGOs, as environmental thought leaders [80,105].…”