Fostering Innovation Ecosystem Development – Tools and Practices.

Capability to create, manage and develop innovation ecosystems to capture value via ecosystem collaboration. Previous literature provides a relatively limited amount of results on how innovation ecosystem can be systematically and concretely developed in order to reach the set objectives for the ecosystem. Therefore, this paper introduces Ecosystem Development Canvas based on the conducted literature review that have been used in practice to manage and continuously improve six ecosystems in the Eastern Finland. Based on the results, the main benefits of the Innovation Ecosystem canvas are: 1) System-based and a comprehensive overview for the ecosystem management, 2) Concrete tool for all short/mid/ and long-term planning and innovation ecosystem development, and 3) Acceleration of the value creation for ecosystem members towards the defined ecosystem main objectives. In addition, we highlight the managerial implications for the ecosystem managers and developers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]