To Engage or Not to Engage: The Case of an Emerging Innovation Ecosystem in Sweden

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the engagement in an innovation ecosystem for knowledge co-creation. It aims at exploring the various aspects of ecosystems, innovation, and knowledge which can drive or hinder actors to engage in collaboration in an innovation ecosystem. A single case study was selected as a research strategy (The OSMaaS project), as it provided us the opportunity to analyze an innovation ecosystem with specific characteristics that few has considered before. Semi-structured interview was used as data collectiontechnique since this interview method offered us the required flexibility to explore in depth theindividual experiences lived during the process of evaluating whether to engage or not to the OSMaaS project. Consequently, a hybrid approach of thematic analysis was selected as methodfor data analysis as it allowed us to interact with the interviewees or the empirical world, theconcepts regarding innovation and ecosystems or theory, and the OSMaaS project or the case study. The findings show that aspects of ecosystems, innovation and Knowledge co-creation aspects such as co-opetition, ecosystem governance and structure, proximity, relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability, competitive advantage, and product development contain factors driving and hindering actors’ engagement in aninnovation ecosystem. These factors are explained within this study and show what have droveand hindered actors to engage in the OSMaaS project.