Innovation ecosystems in B2B contexts: Owning the space

Abstract

This article introduces the reader to the special issue of Industrial Marketing Management on innovation ecosystems. The concept of the innovation ecosystem has created considerable debate amongst industrial marketing scholars. The emergence of the innovation ecosystem concept has come about in response to organizations' desire to improve value creation and capture, and thus improve competitiveness. The special issue consists of nine original research articles that together shed light on the origins and current use of the innovation ecosystem concept in the field of industrial marketing. This editorial makes a case that ecosystems are a logical and exiting concept for the future of B2B scholarship which we should embrace and increasingly own as an indigenous concept.