科研管理 ›› 2021, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (3): 1-11.

• 论文 •    下一篇

数字创新生态系统:理论构建与未来研究

张超,陈凯华,穆荣平   

  1. 中国科学院科技战略咨询研究院,北京100190
  • 收稿日期:2021-01-02 修回日期:2021-02-06 出版日期:2021-03-20 发布日期:2021-03-19
  • 通讯作者: 陈凯华
  • 基金资助:
    国家杰出青年科学基金项目:“创新管理与创新政策”(NSFC72025403,2021.01—2025.12); 中国科学院青年创新促进会优秀会员项目:“国家创新发展体系研究”(Y201934,2020.01—2021.01);国家自然科学基金面上项目:“多维创新指数的全过程构建及在创新发展质量测度中的应用研究”(NSFC71874179,2019.01—2022.12)。

The digital innovation ecosystems: Theory building and a research agenda#br#

Zhang Chao, Chen Kaihua, Mu Rongping   

  1. Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  • Received:2021-01-02 Revised:2021-02-06 Online:2021-03-20 Published:2021-03-19
  • Contact: Kai-Hua Chen

摘要: 数字化重塑了创新主体之间的价值共创方式,拓展了现有创新生态系统理论,引发关于数字创新生态系统的思考。本文提出数字创新生态系统的两种表现形式:创新导向的数字生态系统(又称“数字创新生态系统Ⅰ型”)以及数字赋能的创新生态系统(又称“数字创新生态系统Ⅱ型”)。创新导向型的数字生态系统旨在促进数字创新的产生、应用与扩散,这一围绕数字主体而形成的创新生态系统延续了数字生态系统收敛性、可扩展性、自生长性和模块性的基本特征。数字赋能的创新生态系统是数字化进程与创新主体间价值共创行为深度融合的结果,实现了创新生态系统内主体、结构、制度、功能和演进的数字化转型。数字创新生态系统Ⅰ型与Ⅱ型彼此渗透、相互促进,改进了创新主体之间的价值共创方式,推动了创新能力与创新效能的全面提升。最后,建议未来研究从案例分析、形成机制分析、发展战略分析、政策研究和监测研究等方面来健全和完善数字创新生态系统理论。

关键词: 数字创新生态系统, 数字生态系统, 创新生态系统, 数字创新, 价值共创

Abstract:    Rapid and pervasive digitization of innovation processes and outcomes has upended the way that innovative actors jointly creating value, deepened the development of extant theories on innovation ecosystems, and triggered the discussion on building digital innovation ecosystems. Innovation ecosystem studies have underlined the importance of coordinate symbiosis between innovative actors. The ecosystem members jointly create value around a hub actor, which means they work cooperatively and competitively to support new products, new technologies, and coherent customer solutions. Going digital not only introduces data as a new productive factor but also enhances the collaboration among actors, which changes the behavior logic of innovation ecosystems. Therefore, understanding digital innovation ecosystems in a proper way contributes to guiding the innovation practice in a digital era, as well as expanding or reconstructing relative theories on innovation ecosystems. However, most of the existing studies have neglected the new characters, new trends, or new challenges. There is an urgent need for scholars conducting in-depth studies to understand the nature of digital innovation ecosystems. 
   To fill the research gap, this paper put forward two basic manifestations of digital innovation ecosystems, that is, innovation-oriented digital ecosystems (or say, digital innovation ecosystem Ⅰ type) and digital-enabled innovation ecosystems (or say, digital innovation ecosystem Ⅱ type). On the one hand, innovation-oriented digital ecosystems are defined as digital ecosystems that serve for the creation, application, and diffusion of digital innovations. The innovation-oriented digital ecosystems could realize the join value creation among digital actors through innovation, and therefore can be regarded as innovation ecosystems established around digital actors. Such ecosystems also have characters that they inherit from digital ecosystems, that is, convergence, scalability, generativity, and modularity. On the other hand, the digital-enabled innovation ecosystems are the deep integration between the digitalization process and the behavior logic of ecosystem actors. From the perspective of a complex adaptive system (CAS), this paper constructed a theoretical analytical framework on the behavior logic of innovation ecosystems consisting of five dimensions, that is, actors, structures, institutions, functions, and evolution. Going digital enables new characters to innovation ecosystems, which also changes the behavior logic of innovation ecosystems.
    The two types of digital innovation ecosystem permeate each other and push forward each other. Such intertwined relationships change the way of jointly value creation among innovative actors and improve the innovation capability and innovation effectiveness in an all-round way. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for studying digital innovation ecosystems by integrating the above two concepts: innovation-oriented digital ecosystems and digital-enabled innovation ecosystems (i.e., digital innovation ecosystem Ⅰ type and Ⅱ type). This paper clarified the nature of digital innovation ecosystems by describing how the actors, structures, institutions, functions, or evolution perform when convergence, scalability, generativity, and modularity influence the ecosystems profoundly in a digital era. At last, this paper outlines a new research agenda to fill the gap in our understanding of digital innovation ecosystems. It points out that the following scholars could modify or polish the theories on digital innovation ecosystems by conducting convincing empirical analysis like measuring or case study, analyzing the pathway of ecosystem growth or development, or studying the policy on supporting the establishment or development of digital innovation ecosystems.

Key words: digital innovation ecosystem, digital ecosystem, innovation ecosystem, digital innovation, value co-creation