Gaming innovation ecosystem: actors, roles and co-innovation processes

Abstract Burgeoning research on innovation ecosystems offers a variety of conceptual approaches. Recent systematic literature reviews and syntheses provide a rich, diverse, but somehow abstract view of IEs. Our study advances the literature by taking the perspective of those involved in IEs. We aim to identify how various actors contribute to co-innovation in innovation ecosystems. In order to do so, our aim is to establish the various types of actors (who?), the distinct roles (what?), the different stages (when?), and the diverse engagement in co-innovation processes (how?). The study investigates the Polish Gaming Innovation Ecosystem as a globally successful example of a knowledge-intensive and highly creative innovation ecosystem. Data was collected over 3 years (between 2015 and 2017), in three waves of interviews (38) and non-participatory observations (5). We find that Gaming Innovation Ecosystem participants identify a total of 12 types of collective actors, 9 types of individual actors, and 1 community of individuals. Furthermore, we find four distinctive roles that actors may play in the co-creation processes, that is: direct value creation, supporting value creation, encouraging entrepreneurship, and leadership. Finally, we structure the co-innovation process into five stages: co-discovery, co-development, co-deployment, co-delivery and co-dissemination. We identify the diverse scope and varied intensity of actors’ engagement, depending on the co-innovation phase, as perceived by our informants.