Ecosystem Innovation as the Stepping into Other People’s Shoes

AbstractIn the last decades, the term “ecosystem” has become central in the management studies and in policy makings. Its rise has mirrored an increasing interest and concern among both researchers and managers with interdependence across organizations and activities. This work presents an ecosystem conceptualization in which it is considered as an affiliation of heterogeneous actors associated in a formal o no formal “collaboration” aimed to produce innovation and value as the answer of social, environmental and economic needs. It presents a clear definition of the ecosystem construct in the network comparison, it highlights the role of the stakeholder engagement theory within collaboration between heterogeneous components and crowdsourcing approach, and, finally, underlines the crowdsourcing approach, supported by ICT, in the ecosystem development.