A Measurement Tool for the Competitiveness of Startups’ Innovation Ecosystem

In its nature, a startup is dependent on an innovation ecosystem. The innovation ecosystem, as well as the interactions that a startup maintains, aims to create new products, gain access to specific resources, and promote partnerships with other startups and organizations. The innovation ecosystem’s importance for a startup’s success is recognized by its managers. However, it is challenging to assess the competitive potential of the innovation ecosystem, such as identifying the positive or negative factors, decision-making on new alliances to improve competitiveness, and promoting improvement actions for the entire scenario. The present research aims to propose a measurement tool to verify the competitiveness performance of startups’ innovation ecosystem in the view of startup managers. Indicators related to the innovation ecosystem were extracted from a systematic literature review and developed based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology. The performance measurement tool comprises six Fundamental Points of View (FPV) and 22 Key Performance Indicators (KPI), applied in 46 startups. From the application results in 46 startups, the performance according to the global competitiveness index is between 59.50 and 72.15%, considering the innovation ecosystem is potentially competitive. In contrast, the innovation ecosystem of 79% of startups fails to generate more and better opportunities, providing secure economic advantages for the creation and maintenance of talent. The main contribution of this work is the measurement method we developed to diagnose the competitiveness level of startups’ innovation ecosystem. Stakeholders can apply this model in innovation ecosystems, promoting reflections on which indicators need to be improved to increase the competitiveness of the ecosystem or helping startups choose different ecosystems to promote their business.