Melbourne, Australia | 12th December 2017
The ISPIM Platforms & Ecosystems SIG in collaboration with EERN hosted a workshop as part of the ISPIM Innovation Summit 2017 in Melbourne. The workshop was open to all interested conference attendees and contributed to the overall theme “building the innovation century” by focusing on the dynamics of global and local interactions to foster innovation and growth among innovative companies and new ventures.
Both entrepreneurship (EE) and innovation ecosystems (IE) are frequently used in the academic literature and by practitioners and policy makers. Despite the interest and growing application of the concepts, there are also lots of misconceptions spreading and both practical and theoretical implications remain unanswered. This includes the fundamental differences between the two concepts, with EEs being geographically bound, without a hierarchy and primarily concerned with resource allocation and networking, whereas IEs can take the form of international networks with hierarchical structures and supply chains.
The workshop provided a forum for discussion around several related issues, including:
conceptual differences between innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems;
roles, responsibilities, and impact of ecosystem actors;
the importance of social capital and networks in ecosystems;
co-creation of knowledge; and
challenges in regional ecosystem development; among others.
The workshop will followed the format of a panel discussion and comprised two parts. First, we had four short presentations by the following invited practitioner and academic speakers, each introducing their perspectives on the central issues, and sharing examples of (un)successful initiatives from their own regions or platforms:
Stefani Adams (Partner, Australia Post Accelerate)
Martin Soerensen (Founder, Damona Divine Cow)
Prof Vishal Kishore (Professor Innovation & Public Policy, RMIT University)
Miguel Wood (Co-Founder & CEO, Euler’s Bridge)
These presentations were followed by a discussion, moderated by the symposium chair. The aim of this panel discussion, and the workshop itself, was not necessarily to prescriptive solutions or approaches, but to exchange ideas and to inspire and initiate new research and collaboration on these emergent topics.
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