An ecosystem is a self sustaining system where its member organisms can flourish and grow through a complex process of interdependence among themselves and their surroundings. Similarly an innovation ecosystem could be envisaged as a system which supports the birth and growth of innovative activities in a self sustaining manner. In this context I would like to state some of the components and their interdependence that such an innovation ecosystem is composed of. This model that I am going to present here would provide a partial resemblance of a more complex system that in reality could affect the successful implementation of an innovation paradigm. By saying partial resemblance I would invite addition/deletion of elements to the model as and when suited keeping the basic framework as is. To start with I would divide the system in five fundamental parts; they are “Actors”, “Resources”, “Process”, “Outcome” and “Drivers”. Here “actors” are the entities, which provide the “resources” and support the “processes” for innovation. These actors could be “Government”, “Industry” or “Institutions” (legal, financial, educational). The “resources” we are talking about here are the fundamental ingredients of any innovation cycle; they are “human capital”, “money” and “existing infrastructure” (labs, facilities, transport, IT etc.). Coming to “process” it can be said that these are the activities which are implemented by the “actors” through engaging the “resources”. The important processes pointed here are “networking”, “IP management”, “decentralization of activities”, “coordination between actors”, “spread of innovation awareness” and “addition of supporting infrastructure”. The “outcomes” represent the end results of the entire system in place. For example we could adjudge “new inventions” as one of the end results which is generated by engaging the human capital, money and infrastructure supported by the processes listed above. Here I would like to highlight the quintessential role played by the “drivers” for mobilizing the “resources”. “Resources” are primarily driven by combination of such “drivers” to produce the “outcomes”. For example “new inventions” are influenced directly by drivers such as “motivation”, “competition” and “pride”, whereas “entrepreneurial ventures” are directly affected by drivers like “motivation” and “pride” and indirectly through “competition”. Each “outcome” can further influence a “process” (new invention affects effective IP management), a “driver” (new invention affects competition, increased standard of living affects pride), an “actor” (wealth generation affects Government revenue, new market affects the industry) or another “outcome” itself (new invention affects entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial venture affects employment, societal absorptive capacity affects new market formation).
Let us now discuss about some of the specific elements which may cause ambiguity in explaining the model. First I would mention the role of decentralization and how important a process it could be to spread innovation awareness. Once the infrastructure building are decentralized i.e. the supporting facilities are created or renovated at different parts of the region, automatically a broader section of people start getting curious about the activities (as they see it expand locally) and eventually come to know about the initiatives. Decentralization in turn necessitates stronger networking and coordination between actors. Second, we would see what is meant by societal (knowledge) absorptive capacity, it is the knowledge accumulation among the society as a whole by which they can easily adapt innovative products (technologically advanced) and use them. Hence the “time to get used to” is minimized for innovative products giving rise to new markets (For example, in developed regions like Scandinavia people are more used to technologically advanced products and its frequent up gradation, also there is a huge scope for such absorptive capacity development in developing country like India, opening new market horizons). Third, I would discuss about the role of pride as a driver. Here pride should be understood as an awareness of being part of a group with superior skills (like German pride about their engineering capability or Brazilian pride of being a great footballing nation), which helps in creating a mindset that drives people to have a natural inclination towards the pride factor (in the example “engineering ” for Germans or “football” for Brazilians).
The above figure depicts an overall picture of all the parts and influence individual elements have on others.
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