【 Topic 】Network Structure and Evolvability of Innovation Ecosystems

【Speaker 】Jianxi Luo, Assistant Professor,Singapore University of Technology & Design

【Time 】13:30 - 15:00, May 10, 2013, Friday

【Venue 】Room 336 Weilun Building, Tsinghua SEM

【Language 】English

【Organizer】Department of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy

【Abstract 】This study examines the correlation between the structure of an

innovation ecosystem and its evolvability. An innovation ecosystem is modeled as a

directed network of firms connected by transactions for interdependent technologies

designed by different firms. We create a random network model to generate networks that

can represent innovation ecosystems with variable degrees of hierarchy, and then use

the standard NK model to generate and evaluate the “performance landscapes” of such

ecosystem-like networks. Our simulation results show that the hierarchical structure in

ecosystem networks gives rises to landscape ruggedness, indicating higher likelihood

for an innovation ecosystem to be locked in local optima and unable to evolve further.

Implications of our simulation results to the evolutionary trajectories of automotive

and electronics ecosystems are briefly discussed with empirical network data from these

two ecosystems.

【Biography】

Jianxi Luo is an assistant professor in the Engineering Product Development Pillar at

Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)*. Prior to joining SUTD, he was a

faculty member with the Department of Technology Management and Innovation at New York

University Polytechnic Institute since 2011, where he is currently on leave. He was

also a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University in

New York City (2011) and the Judge Business School of the University of Cambridge

(2005), and also had brief work experience with the strategic planning office of Toyota

Motor America (2007). He is also a researcher with the International Motor Vehicle

Program (IMVP) since 2005. He holds a PhD in Technology Management and Policy and M.S.

in Technology & Policy from the Engineering Systems Division of MIT, and M.S. in

Automotive Engineering and B.S. in Thermal Engineering from Tsinghua University.

Dr. Luo has strong passion for creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship in research,

teaching and practice. His research aims to develop complex system theories and

methodologies, and use them to explore how the architectures of products, processes and

ecosystems influence the chances for innovation. In teaching, he has taught courses on

innovation and entrepreneurship to undergrad, grad and executive MoT students at New

York University, and an undergraduate course on mathematical modeling of systems at

SUTD. In practice, he was a (co-)founder of several startups.