Connecting the Parts with the Whole: Toward an Information Ecology Theory of Digital Innovation Ecosystems
Connecting the Parts with the Whole: Toward an Information Ecology Theory of Digital Innovation Ecosystems
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连接部分与整体：走向数字创新生态系统的信息生态理论
DOI：
10.25300/misq/2021/15864
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发表时间：
2021
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Ping Wang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Ping Wang
数字技术的显著连通性和嵌入性使广泛的参与者能够进行创新，这些参与者往往超越组织和行业界限，其关系模仿自然生态系统中相互依赖的物种。这些数字创新生态系统如果成功，可以产生无数具有重大社会和经济价值的创新，但它们很复杂，而且往往会出现令人惊讶的失败。为了将生态系统理解为数字创新的一种新的组织形式，我提出了一个理论，解决了一个尚未探索但很重要的问题：在数字创新生态系统中，自主各方的努力如何整合成一个连贯的整体，数字技术在这种整合中扮演什么角色？通过综合生态学和信息学的观点，信息生态学理论确定了数字技术在提供支持不同规模生态系统中创新的互动和任务所需的信息方面的几个关键功能。该理论有助于数字创新研究管理部分整体关系，数字技术在创新中的作用，以及数字创新生态系统中和跨生态系统的多层次互动的新见解。该理论还可以启发下一代生态系统信息系统作为一种新的组织形式的发展。
The remarkable connectivity and embeddedness of digital technologies enable innovations undertaken by a broad set of actors, often beyond organizational and industry boundaries, whose relationships mimic those of interdependent species in a natural ecosystem. These digital innovation ecosystems, if successful, can spawn countless innovations of substantial social and economic value, but are complex and prone to often surprising failure. Aiming to understand ecosystems as a new organizational form for digital innovations, I develop a theory that addresses an underexplored but important question: In a digital innovation ecosystem, how are the efforts of autonomous parties integrated into a coherent whole and what role do digital technologies play in this integration? By synthesizing ecological and information perspectives, this information ecology theory identifies several key functions that digital technologies serve in providing the information needed to support the interactions and tasks for innovation in ecosystems of varying scales. This theory contributes to digital innovation research new insights on managing part–whole relations, the role of digital technologies in innovation, and multilevel interactions in and across digital innovation ecosystems. The theory can also inspire the development of next-generation information systems for ecosystems as a new organizational form.