Foreword:

Innovation is increasingly a result of inter-firm processes e.g. open innovation, as well as of indirect, ecosystemic interaction between companies that happens by sharing common objectives, locations, or platforms. Innovation ecosystems allow for more agile, rapid innovation since they can draw on existing resources and activities of different firms. Ecosystem innovation also drives lasting systemic change. New technologies are embedded in more overarching technological solutions as well as in relationships between firms. Such layered and modular structures can incorporate further alterations and improvements and therefore make new solutions more resilient. Hence, our understanding of innovation emergence and diffusion is changing.
Still, little is yet known about the mechanisms that drive the emergence of different ecosystems. In this context, it has been suggested that certain technologies may enable the birth of ecosystems. Such enabling technologies form the basis for innovations in complementary sectors. Complex and complementary technologies that constitute dominant designs tend to be more enabling for subsequent innovation. Understanding and predicting the emergence of technology-centered innovation ecosystems allows for a purposeful orchestration of the emergence. Enabling technologies are usually underfunded, since the only future gains from the specific technology are considered, and not from the subsequential systemic change. Policy initiatives are therefore especially important for supporting these technologies, and the ecosystems that emerge in their wake.
However, these technologies need to overcome structural, societal, and cultural barriers. The unprecedented reach of digital technologies is therefore an enabling factor. Here, blockchain technology is such a digital enabling technology with a clear ecosystemic impact. On the one hand, blockchain enables the construction of new commercial relationships, thus increasing ecosystem reach. On the other hand, the technology increases trust and security in interactions, enabling relationships with more detailed information. Blockchain therefore generates richness in the ecosystem.
Hence, blockchain technology is ideal for understanding the drivers and barriers of technology-ecosystem emergence. This report therefore employs an inductive study of blockchain to generate a predictive tool for the emergence of technology-centered innovation ecosystems. This will have implications for managerial practice, but also for our understanding of how such innovation ecosystems emerge and evolve.

Alexander Brem and Petra Nylund

Authors: Gianlorenzo Meggio, Petra Nylund, Ferran Giones, Agnieszka Radziwon, Alexander Brem

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