I think this is an excellent question, and I would like to piggyback adding the question that if 'Business Ecosystems' are constellations of organizations that create and appropriate value around a specific product or technology, what then is a difference between a Business Ecosystem and a 'Technological Innovation System' as studied in Innovation Studies and/or STS. TIS are also defined roughly as constellations of organizations that create value around a specific technology (see e.g. Bergek, A., Jacobsson, S., Carlsson, B., Lindmark, S., & Rickne, A. (2008). Analyzing the functional dynamics of technological innovation systems: A scheme of analysis. Research Policy, 37(3), 407–429. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2007.12.003).

I think that Regina has a good answer for all practical purposes, but her answer also highlights the similarities between ecosystems and innovation systems.

One aspect of the question, I suspect, is that business ecosystem is not only or primarily a scholarly construct. What I'm seeing, is that it has caught the attention of RDI policy makers, much in the same way as Innovation Systems and Smart Specialization have done in the past. The increased use outside scholarly community is a good thing as such, but when a construct becomes a buzzword, it might be more difficult to forge and retain a sharp rigorous definition.

Dear Regina and Kalle,

Thanks for your helpful suggestions. Indeed, the (business) ecosystem concept is becoming more and more problematic for academic purposes, now that it's also widely used by policy makers and many others.

From my experience with practitioners in the recent time the ecosystem approach is mainly used in the context of platforms. Here single, focal companies set the rules for an ecosystem, create a new way to reach customers and select who will be a part of the ecosystem. Additionally, it contains a competitor perspective (ecosystems compete against each other) and it contains the lock-in effects which are created when deciding for an ecosystem. And I think this is a perspective that is also shared in literature. Whereas TIS is more focus on the development and production of a value from a technological perspective, ecosystems focus also on the value capturing aspect (also including non-technological aspects). That's why ecosystems and business models share a similar notion.

But I know there are lots of different perspectives and I bet there are other network concepts from earlier days that already contains some perspectives. Its like many terms that fly between practise and academia: Terms are words and hence interpretative. And some terms are more appealing than others (a better metaphor). There will be hardly accuracy today since everybody can publish his/her view on open platforms or with book publishers whose business model builds on masses instead of quality. We have to be clear in our definitions what we mean, and try build a critical mass (e.g. Like the Special Issue in Long Range Planing Journal in 2010 did with Business Models).

Thanks Martin, that value capture aspect might be an important distinction, however might be that TIS and ecosystems are basically two sides of the same coin?

Hi Kalle, to be honest, for this question I am not too much a specialist in TIS. I am not 100% sure if TIS is equal to Sectoral systems of innovation which I know a bit better.

But looking on your suggested paper from Bergek et al. the authors propose a model for policy makers. So maybe the intended use plays a role for the names rather than the content. From what I recognize how the ecosystem is used, its more from the business side. So then, yes its two sides of a coin: One from the business/company perspective and one from the policy maker perspective. But also the scope differs. TIS seems a bit broader than the ecosystems approach...

But maybe someone else can built a better distinction between TIS and Ecosystems.

Maybe this recent paper in Research Policy can be helpful:

Bart Clarysse, Mike Wrighta, Johan Bruneel, Aarti Mahajan (in press)

Creating value in ecosystems: Crossing the chasm between knowledge and business ecosystems

The paper reviews literature on the concepts of 'knowledge ecosystems' and 'business ecosystems'

Dear Laurents, thanks for the paper info. I will read it. There was also an article in product innovation management ("Industry platforms and ecosystem innovation" by Gawer and Cusumano). Interestingly, the paper was only about platforms without a clear discussion what the different notions of ecosystems are. The authors quote sources that in my opinion have partly contrary positions. But it does not seem to be a problem.

Currently, I am working on distinctions between ecosystem and the industry value chain. Does anybody know articles that refer to the topic?

Malecki, E. J. (2018). Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Geography Compass. DOI: 10.1111/gec3.12359

Brown, R., & Mason, C. (2017). Looking inside the spiky bits: a critical review and conceptualisation of entrepreneurial ecosystems. Small Business Economics, 49(1), 11-30.