From business ecosystems to ecosystems of innovation: the case of the video game industry in Montréal

ABSTRACT

The concept of ecosystem plays a central role in the recent debates on the unfolding of a new regime of innovation. In this paper, we contribute to these debates by clarifying the distinction between the emerging concept of ‘ecosystem of innovation’ from the established concept of ‘business ecosystems.’ Re-interpreting the case of the historical developments of the video game cluster of Montreal, we argue that the dynamics of knowledge creation and innovation in ‘ecosystems of innovation’ imply to adopt a wider scope and address knowledge flows between a diverse set of business ecosystems and between a business ecosystem and less formalised spaces dedicated to knowledge creation and exploration. We conclude suggesting the complementarity of ‘ecosystems of innovation’ with ‘business ecosystems’ and their generativity fuelled by creative tensions between formal and informal loci of knowledge creation, illustrated by diverse talent trajectories.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecosystem of innovation
• business ecosystem
• new regime of innovation
• middleground

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ This dynamism is manifested through several indicators: the number of jobs created (more than 12,000 directly), the presence of over 140 studios, including the major international video game companies (Ubisoft, Eidos, Gameloft, Warner Bros Games, Square Enix, and Electronic Arts’ Motive Studios, and more recently Google Stadia), the emergence of a diversified set of local medium-sized firms (Behaviour, Ludia, Reflector, Budge Studios, etc.), a buoyant independent gaming community.