The concept of an ecosystem was introduced by the British ecologist A. G. Tansleyin 1935, signifying a natural system formed through the interaction between living organisms and their environment. Moore (1993) brought this concept into the business domain, whereby a network of interdependent networks of autonomous actors jointly create value (Bogers et al., 2019). This has given rise to a series of new concepts such as business ecosystems, innovation ecosystems, and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Balancing value creation and capture for ecosystem success requires aligning individual interests of actors within the system with the collective interest of the ecosystem (Dai et al 2024). This is an intricate endeavour due to its complexity, which requires leadership of key stakeholders, governance mechanisms and innovation champions to drive a collaborative culture that ensures knowledge and value is distributed among actors. This necessitates an environment that encourages creative, original thinking and dialogue between multiple constituencies.

Innovation systems fail due to lack of business alignment, poor processes, unsupportive culture and lack of key stakeholder commitment. Actors may have difficulty expanding their ecosystems because of the effort associated with creating technical compatibility and their ability to identify complementary combinations (Borner et al., 2023). Open innovation encompasses the perspective of the innovation ecosystem and co-creating value within ecosystems can be facilitated by adoption open innovation principles and practices.

Existing studies still do not adequately consider the interactive processes by which firms can protect individual interests while maintaining collective values (Dai et al., 2024). The theoretical understanding of how to construct ecosystems remains underdeveloped. This PhD research will empirically explore the mechanisms and processes of building innovation ecosystems.

The proposed methodology is a qualitative case study approach (Yin, 2014) undertaken within the Siemens Energy Network. This will involve gathering data via semi structured interviews with experts and participants, participant observation and secondary data sources.

You will be based at the University of Strathclyde under the supervision of Professor Beverly Wagner and Dr Marisa Smith and will receive additional supervisory input from Dr Jens Dietrich, Siemens Energy, Berlin Germany.

What we are looking for

As a PhD in Innovation Management you will also be responsible for developing an operating system for this initiative. In this role, you will develop ideas and prepare decisions for the introduction of the operating model for the Eco-system and partners involved. The target is to establish processes for the alignment of strategies, fore sighting of technology, developing early-stage R&D topics in a pre-commercial phase by leveraging the strength of the eco system.

Further information

This scholarship is offered in conjunction with Siemens Energy (Berlin) one of the University of Strathclyde’s strategic partners. The successful applicant will have an external supervisor based in Germany and will be expected to undertake research visits to Berlin as part of their studies. There may also be a requirement to participate in other activities relating to this valued partnership.