Bridging differing perspectives on ecosystems research : towards an integrative framework

Ates, Aylin and Sminia, Harry and Paton, Steve and Smith, Marisa and Wurth, Bernd (2021) Bridging differing perspectives on ecosystems research : towards an integrative framework. In: 35th Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management, 2021-08-31 - 2021-09-03, Online. (In Press)

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Abstract

Management practitioners and scholars alike use a range of terms such as industry, sector, and market to describe and characterise an organisation’s environment. More recently the word ecosystem, a term borrowed from the field of biology, has entered the lexicon. Today, the ecosystem literature is growing but not homogenously. It is diversified with interesting contributions made by scholars from innovation, strategy, and entrepreneurship fields. Although some scholars address them as complementary concepts, the literature lacks evidences about what are the interfaces and connection between the different ecosystem research streams. This Professional Development Workshop (PDW) aims to bring together a diverse range of scholars from different disciplines across the special interest groups (SIGs) within the British Academy of Management. The organising committee aims to facilitate a virtual workshop to encourage interaction and exchange of ideas among participants that do not typically participate in the same paper sessions and SIGs. Literature points out what the differences might be among various ecosystem research streams, however this PDW aims to make a difference and addresses how different school of thoughts regarding ecosystems can be aligned. In doing so, this PDW is intended to facilitate discussions, synergies and new connections among the participants to bring conceptual clarity around ecosystem notions. Therefore, we aim to align conceptualisations of ecosystems from different perspectives. Given the above, our intention is to discuss the following during the PDW: What do ecosystems explain? What does explain ecosystems? Following a short presentation session by the speakers, we will invite attendees to engage in conversation to address the above questions from theoretical and empirical perspectives using interactive Zoom tools. We aim to develop our collective work into an edited book and/or a journal special issue proposal.