Cognitive Leadership, Systemic Innovation, and the Formation of Innovation Ecosystems

We analyze how innovators facilitate and shape the formation of innovation ecosystems around a systemic innovation. We argue that the ability to engage in cognitive leadership--the ability to influence others' beliefs, in particular owners of complementary assets, in order to achieve coordination and cooperation--is central to the development of nascent innovation ecosystems. Our approach shifts the unit of analysis from the innovation and the underlying (eco)system to the beliefs about the innovation, the ecosystem (including interdependencies) and the different players. Our model is built on three elements: beliefs as targets for successful cognitive leadership, the mechanisms by which innovators can influence others' beliefs, and the enablers as underlying skills for cognitive leadership. We discuss implications of our analysis for our understanding of the formation of innovation ecosystems and the emergence of ecosystem leadership and also highlight managerial implications.