Impacts and indicators of Innovation Ecosystems : A Framework for Analysis

Abstract

The INNOVA project has produced information and tools to support the assessment of the impact of innovation ecosystems. Ecosystems are recognised to play an increasingly im-portant role in the implementation of EU and Finnish innovation and industrial policies. How-ever, assessing and measuring the impacts of different kind of ecosystems is challenging and requires a wide range of data and ecosystem-specific reviews. The empirical review carried out in this study will help to identify innovation ecosystems and their impacts. The built framework and case studies provide a basis for impact assessment of innovation ecosystems.

The results of the statistical analysis show a strong link between companies' participation in innovation ecosystems and better firm-level innovation performance. However, it is not possible to identify the causal links between the effects of innovation ecosystems on the basis of the reviews.

When examining the impacts of innovation ecosystems, special attention should be paid to the extent to which innovation ecosystems increase RDI cooperation between organisations and generate innovations that benefit society more broadly. The recommendations of the study emphasise the long-term nature of innovation policy and its monitoring, and the im-portance of cooperation between RDI funders, as well as impact-oriented policy formulation and implementation.