In the search of the student's role in innovation ecosystems

Abstract: Abstract  Level: Master thesis in Innovation and design , 30 credits Institution: School of Innovation, Design and Technology, Mälardalen University Author: Cornelia Alenbring (98/05/24)   Title: In the search of the student's role in innovation ecosystems Supervisors: Anders Vikström, Erik Bjurström MDU examinator:Yvonne Eriksson Keywords: “ecosystems for innovation”, “eco systems for social innovation”, “social innovation ecosystems”, “quadruple helix” “students- innovation ecosystem” “students role in innovation ecosystems” Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the specific role of students in innovation ecosystems. By gaining a deeper understanding of their role, this research aims to contribute to a more nuanced micro-dynamic perspective on the role of students in innovation ecosystems. This thesis explores conceptualizations and metaphors of innovation ecosystems with the aim of exploring different theorizing in the field, related to the role of students within those.  Research question: What is the role of students in innovation ecosystems? Method: The study was based on a qualitative method. The empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews and observations using focus groups with 5 actors within the public, academia, industry and civil society. Conclusion: The role of the student is at the heart of the innovation ecosystem metaphor - that of emergence and co-evolution. Rather, the empirical evidence of this thesis concurs that the roles available to students also depend on other actors taking them seriously, and that the reasons for less than optimal exchange between students and other actors deserves further investigation.  It is an interesting observation that students fall between the system perspective’s grand theorizing and pedagogics’ narrower focus on education: - So what is the point of pursuing a research approach where either students or ecosystems are not mentioned? There is an obvious gap in where the abstract level of the system perspective, whilst it can serve as an overview of the concept,  does not specify actors and misses to provide a micro perspective on what is occurring between actors, that could explain how it all happens. Are students rather representatives of the civil society, or of what Powell referred to ‘amphibians’, or representative of nothing but themselves as individuals-in-the-making, as a representative of becoming itself and emergence in itself – through their interaction on a campus which they don’t own, but inhabit? And what do companies really want when they want to be a campus? What is special about a campus and life on a campus? What is the very essence of it?