The Innovation Ecosystem as a Source of Value Creation

6The Iterative Network: Collaboration and Typology

The network: “a complex social construct with variable geometry”.

[GUE 04]

6.1. Introduction

The modeling of the innovation ecosystem presented in Chapter 3 shows that the affiliation of the actors, their positions and the links they create between them are the source of the emergence and growth of the iterative network. Each community, whether scientific, technological or commercial, is built through the affiliation of the actors.

This iterative network encompasses all the actors in the innovation ecosystem who participate in the development of the phases of the innovation process. Collaboration is a challenge due to the presence of actors belonging to different worlds, with different cultures, divergent points of view, interests and information asymmetries [ADN 19].

This chapter aims to highlight how, in order to meet their expectations of collaboration, actors put in place mechanisms to overcome obstacles to collaboration. They create “small worlds” that shorten the network and make its nodes more visible and accessible. In search of coherence between communities and their activities, actors try to combine pool and reciprocal interdependencies to implement effective collaboration.

6.2. Networks and ecosystems: a brief overview

Networks are characterized by the coevolution of actors engaged in collaboration [BAS 14] leading to scientific discoveries, technological inventions and collective innovations [POW 01]. The network ...