Harnessing Exaptation and Ecosystem Strategy for Accelerated Innovation: Lessons From The...

What is it about?

The COVID-19 crisis has underlined the need for accelerated innovation to rapidly help business solve social problems. These problems require access to capabilities and knowledge that no single organization or existing supply chain possesses. Drawing on the experience of the open innovation and rapid-scale-up achieved by the VentilatorChallengeUK to address a shortage of ventilators required by patients seriously ill with COVID-19, this article develops a framework for accelerated innovation and delivery that crosses traditional industry boundaries. It offers a series of important lessons for how open innovation, exaptation, and ecosystem strategies—backed by a set of enabling initiatives—can be used to solve multi-faceted social and business problems at speed.

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Why is it important?

------------------------------------------------------- Contribution to Academic Scholarship ------------------------------------------------------- In this study, we have shown how innovation can be accelerated by combining three strategies: an open innovation mindset; exaptation of existing technologies, people and partnerships; and strategies to catalyse the emergence of a diverse ecosystem of varied partners who brought different capabilities, knowledge, and experience to address this kind of challenge. We identified a series of preconditions that need to be created to underpin accelerated innovation including establishing a shared sense of purpose, enabling organizational agility, promoting collaboration with partners, harnessing design fluidity, and accessing manufacturing and operational flexibility. ------------------------------------------------------- Contribution to Management Practice ------------------------------------------------------- The research offers valuable insights into how ecosystem formation and accelerated innovation were achieved. We outline five key initiatives: establishing a shared sense of purpose; enabling organizational agility; promoting collaboration with partners; harnessing design fluidity; and accessing manufacturing and operational flexibility. The VentilatorChallengeUK case offers insights into these initiatives and how they can combine to achieve success. ---------------------------- Author Perspective ---------------------------- While innovation ecosystems evolve over decades, this case was a unique opportunity to see the entire lifecycle of an ecosystem play out over a few months. The rapid repurposing of manufacturing and design capabilities allowed us to test and extend our previous research on exaptation and gain new insights into open innovation to address societal challenges.