Innovation Ecosystems

Martin Fransman presents a new approach to understanding how innovation happens, who makes it happen, and the helps and hindrances. Looking at innovation in real-time under uncertainty, he develops the idea of an 'innovation ecosystem', i.e. a system of interrelated players and processes that jointly make innovation happen. Examples include: how companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Apple, AT&T, and Huawei interact in the ICT Ecosystem; four innovations that changed the world - the transistor, microprocessor, optical fibre, and the laser; the causes of the telecoms boom and bust of the early 1990s that influenced the Great Recession from 2007; and the usefulness of the idea of innovation ecosystems for Chinese policy makers. By delving into the complex determinants of innovation this book provides a deeper, more rigorous understanding of how it happens. It will appeal to economists, social scientists, business people, policy makers, and anyone interested in innovation and entrepreneurship.

'A joy to read (and re-read).' Arno Penzias, Nobel Laureate in Physics and former President of Bell Laboratories, 'All industrial countries want more innovative companies, but there is no consensus on how to bring that about. In this book Martin Fransman, drawing on his deep knowledge of high-technology industries in Asia, Europe and the US, provides an illuminating analysis of the institutions and policies that constitute an effective innovation eco-system. Informed by theory as well as numerous practical examples, Fransman underlines the importance of the entrepreneurial function, in established companies as well as in start-ups, in navigating a way through the uncertainties of the invention/innovation process. This is an original contribution to the study of innovation, and one which will be valuable both for policy-makers and for entrepreneurs and managers.' Geoffrey Owen, former editor of the Financial Times, 'Empirical studies of innovation increasingly have highlighted the importance of the collection of individuals, organizations, and institutional structures involving those working in a field, and the modes of communication and interaction, that provide the context within which particular efforts at innovating proceed. Martin Fransman has been a leading scholar of what he has called 'innovation ecologies'. This fine book provides a fascinating collection of descriptions and analyses of innovation ecologies at work, bringing together important parts of Fransman's earlier work and extending it in a variety of dimensions. An important book for all who are interested in innovation and the context that fosters and shapes it.' Richard R. Nelson, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, New York and pioneer of Schumpeterian Evolutionary Economics, 'Innovation is critical to our development. So it is important to understand how innovation happens, what can go right, as well as what can go very wrong. This book by Martin Fransman makes an important contribution in answering these questions.' Lord Alistair Darling, Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, 'Departing from the literature on Innovation Systems and Business Ecosystems, Martin Fransman provides an Austrian-economics flavoured answer to the questions of how innovation happens and who makes it happen. This is a fascinating book, rich with insight and empirical examples, … and will appeal to neophytes and experts alike.' Jochen Runde, Director of Faculty, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Martin Fransman is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Edinburgh. He won the 2008–10 Joseph Schumpeter Prize for his book The New ICT Ecosystem (Cambridge, 2010). His other book prizes include the Wadsworth Prize for the best business book published in the UK for Telecoms in the Internet Age: From Boom to Bust to…? (2002), and the Masayoshi Ohira Prize for The Market and Beyond (Cambridge, 1990).