Exploring Medtech Innovation Ecosystems: A Dynamic Capabilities Approach

Introduced by Moore (1993) as a way to depict a business environment in which actors both collaborate and compete to create value that individual organisations could not produce otherwise, the ecosystem concept has since then gained importance in the strategic management literature. Recently, scholars have turned their attention towards orchestrating activities, which are necessary for artificial ecosystems to develop and evolve over time (Autio, 2021; Chen et al., 2019; Yaghmaie & Vanhaverbeke, 2019). Some of these activities, performed by actors called "orchestrators", were identified by scholars (Äyväri & Spilling, 2020; Lingens et al., 2021; Roijakkers et al., 2013). However, the capabilities necessary for orchestrators to carried out their activities remain understudied. Previous research has shown the relevance of dynamic capabilities in the context of ecosystems to stimulate value creation and ecosystem renewal (Heaton et al., 2019; Helfat & Raubitschek, 2018; Linde et al., 2021). Following this stream of research, this paper draws on the dynamic capability framework to better understand ecosystem orchestration activities and determine how the study of heterogeneous ecosystems enrich the literature on dynamic capabilities in ecosystems. A single-case study of Cowork'HIT, one of the central actors in the Handicap Innovation Territoire (HIT) innovation ecosystems in Bretagne, France, helped us understand ecosystem orchestrating activities and the associated capabilities. This research contributes to the nascent literature on dynamic capabilities in ecosystems and can help policymakers to foster the emergence of orchestrators and regulate ecosystems over time.