Collaboration for Sustainable Innovation Ecosystem: The Role of Intermediaries

Abstract

Innovation ecosystems have increasingly been studied from various perspectives, including connecting innovation ecosystems to sustainable development. Extant studies have found that innovation is important for sustainable development, collaboration is important for innovation, and intermediaries create necessary links and opportunities for the development of relations and cooperation between different actors in an ecosystem. What has been missing, however, is an explicit analysis of the process of collaboration in innovation ecosystems to ensure sustainability and the role of intermediaries in the process. To fill this void, this paper studies six organizations that act as intermediaries, using a multiple-case design approach. It analyzes the process of collaboration in innovation ecosystems and elucidates the role of intermediaries in the development of sustainable ecosystems. The findings indicate that the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems is an iterative process facilitated by intermediaries. By connecting different actors, intermediaries support the diffusion of innovation that has important implications for building sustainable innovation ecosystems and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

1. Introduction

Researchers have studied innovation ecosystems, analyzed links between innovation ecosystems and sustainable development, and examined the factors that influence sustainability, as well as the role of intermediaries in different ecosystems. In an innovation ecosystem, the focus is usually on the introduction of a new product or service or a new way to create value for customers by introducing a new or changing an existing business model [1,2]. Actors in an innovation ecosystem interact and collaborate toward a shared aim of the whole innovation ecosystem. Intermediaries support ecosystem actors by helping them to search for knowledge, monitoring their activities, navigating different interests and avoiding conflicts of interest, and lowering coordination costs [3,4]. Managing innovation ecosystems is not a linear process and requires collaboration between different actors [5]. The sustainability of innovation ecosystems relies on collaboration between actors in an open environment as well as knowledge production and transfer [6]. Intermediaries play important roles in this context by facilitating the process of collaboration, supporting the diffusion and implementation of innovation, and thereby contributing to the sustainable development of ecosystems. Intermediaries are typical inhabitants of ecosystems that connect diverse actors of an ecosystem [4,7]. They can operate both at the network or system level and focus on the bilateral relationship to support individual organizations, and the significance of intermediaries lies in the maintenance, creation, and coordination of networks of interdependent and different actors [8,9,10]. In other words, intermediaries create the necessary links between different actors in an ecosystem and provide opportunities for the development of relations and cooperation between them.

However, how the collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems comes about and the role of intermediaries in the process have remained relatively underexplored. Although innovation ecosystems can be virtual because of digitization and globalization, they need some grounded hubs as members need to physically meet to interact and cocreate, to develop new ideas benefiting from their multidisciplinary skills and competencies [11,12,13]. Intermediaries play important roles in this context; they are key facilitators in intra- and inter-ecosystem linkages [14,15]. Extant studies have also examined the factors that influence sustainability, analyzed the links between innovation and sustainability, and emphasized collaboration for innovation [5,16,17], but have rarely explored the process of collaboration from this perspective. Sustainability is not an automatic outcome of innovation activities; obtaining sustainability requires not only resources and capabilities to manage those resources [16,18,19] but also the ability to manage relationships and develop partnerships [20]. The literature still lacks a clear understanding of the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems and the role of intermediaries in facilitating the process. Therefore, this study aims at answering the questions: What is the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems? What are the roles of intermediaries in facilitating collaborations in innovation ecosystems and in ensuring sustainability? The major research hypothesis of this study is that intermediaries play a crucial role in the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems and the adoption and diffusion of innovation. Thereby, they contribute to the development of sustainable innovation ecosystems and help achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Intermediaries are often identified through the functions they perform, including connecting multiple actors, organizing discourse, creating conditions for learning, and transferring knowledge and technologies [8,21]. Innovation intermediaries are public or private organizations that support firm-level and system-level innovation in various ways, such as creating knowledge links between organizations, sharing knowledge about particular technologies, providing knowledge-intensive services, and advising policymakers [22,23]. This research adopted a multiple-case design approach and studied six organizations that act as intermediaries to obtain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. The boundary of this study was set to the context of innovation in Healthcare in Montreal, in which both local and international actors are active. The context is, therefore, opportune to explore collaborations between actors within and across ecosystems. At first, this research attempts to understand why and how an organization collaborates with another organization to identify the process. Next, the roles of intermediaries in different steps of that process are identified. The findings indicate that the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems is iterative and that intermediaries, being connected to different actors, play an important role in facilitating collaboration.

This paper contributes to the literature on open innovation and innovation ecosystems by analyzing the process of collaboration in innovation ecosystems and elucidating the role of intermediaries. This study establishes an interdisciplinary bridge between different streams of literature and provides an empirical foundation for the role of intermediaries in relational developments in the process of collaboration between actors within and across different ecosystems. With an understanding of the roles of intermediaries, organizations can make efficient use of their resources, and policymakers can devote resources to fostering ecosystems and developing target sectors. Given that innovation requires integrated collaboration, co-creation, and value-sharing between different actors in an ecosystem [23], and that ecosystem management is generally synonymous with sustainable development [5], this study will guide different actors in innovation ecosystems to create an environment conducive to collaboration and build collaboration for sustainable development. Sustainability in innovation ecosystems requires not only optimizing internal innovation processes but also optimizing externally through a combination of autonomy and coordination of diverse interests of different actors [19,24,25]. Coordination and alignment of such diverse and potentially opposite interests are crucial in achieving SDGs [24].

This study provides a nuanced understanding of the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems and investigates the role of intermediaries by integrating the literature on open innovation with the studies of innovation ecosystems.

2. Theoretical Background

A sustainable innovation ecosystem combines the features of openness and coevolution of actors in the ecosystem [20]. Open innovation provides an environment to exploit the collective and collaborative potentials of individuals and can enhance sustainable innovation ecosystems [11]. Innovation has been widely acknowledged as a key mechanism for addressing sustainable development concerns [17,25,26]. Interfirm collaboration is central for sustainability purposes [11]. Open innovation has been regarded as an effective way to achieve sustainable innovation through collaboration and stakeholder involvement [20]. An innovation ecosystem provides an environment for the actors with a wealth of technical expertise, business experience, and access to capital, which supports innovation [27,28]. Actors in innovation ecosystems must collaborate and select collaboration partners in desired locations to ensure the diffusion and adoption of their innovations [29]. Intermediaries support organizations to identify appropriate collaborative partners, support the process of collaboration, and manage the network of collaborators [2,21,22,30,31].

The scholarly interest in the role of intermediaries in connecting actors in innovation ecosystems and facilitating innovation has been growing [21,23,30,32]. Intermediaries are typical inhabitants of an ecosystem and brokers between diverse actors in the ecosystem by connecting, translating, and facilitating the flow of knowledge [4,8,33,34]. In innovation ecosystems, intermediaries support organizations to share technologies, knowledge, or skills and work together in order to develop new products and services [7,12,22,35,36]. Intermediaries are often identified through the functions they perform, including connecting multiple actors, organizing discourse, creating conditions for learning, and transferring knowledge and technologies [8,10,21,22,23]. This study investigates how intermediaries facilitate the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems.

In the literature, technology parks, business incubators, knowledge-intensive business services, research, technology organizations, industry associations, chambers of commerce, university-liaison offices, and regional innovation centers have been considered the prevalent types of intermediaries that play different roles in different ecosystems [8,12]. Major objectives of innovation intermediaries include promoting ideas and projects, providing external expertise, exchanging experience and knowledge, supporting partner search, and mobilization of resources needed for project implementation. For example, technology transfer organizations, a type of intermediary organization, operate at the boundary of different communities or fields to transfer technology between organizations [3]. Innovation intermediaries play important roles in building interorganizational collaborations by bringing together different actors, including firms, governments, and universities, to deal with innovation-related challenges [37,38]. Collective actions to explore and experiment with novelties and new concepts are essential to sustainability in innovation ecosystems [6]. AI is being used and can potentially be employed in the future to achieve SDGs [17,39,40].

Although it is not possible to pin down one specific reason for a firm’s decision to work with a partner, since such a decision can result from a chain of events, incomplete information, and activities of different actors, the decision might be a sequential process in which a firm decides to make incremental investments to fortify an already established relationship, and specific decisions can be made in specific circumstances. For example, in joint ventures, the partnering process proceeds through the assessment of the strategic logic for creating the venture, selection of a partner, negotiation of the terms, and implementation and ongoing management of the business [41]; partners have important decisions to make in each of these steps. However, although this process identifies partner selection as a separately identifiable phase, it does not explain how to select a partner. Intermediaries play a significant role in this context by providing necessary information [33], enhancing relational connections and networks [9,34], and helping actors to adapt to the ecosystem [42,43]. Effective collaborations between different actors in innovation ecosystems are paramount for sustainable innovation ecosystems and sustainable development [11,29,44].

To sum up, earlier studies found that innovation is important for sustainable development, collaboration is important for innovation, and intermediaries create necessary links and provide opportunities for the development of relations and collaborations between actors in ecosystems. However, little is known about how collaborations between actors in innovation ecosystems come about and the role of intermediaries in the process. Therefore, the question remains: How do intermediaries facilitate the process of collaboration in innovation ecosystems?

3. Methods: Multiple Case Design

This study applied a multiple-case design approach and adopted the purposeful typical case sampling strategy [45,46,47]. In a multiple-case design approach, a series of cases are treated as a series of experiments in which each case serves to confirm or disconfirm the inferences. The multiple-case design approach is highly iterative and tightly linked to data [48] and allows a replication logic [47]. The logic and power of purposeful typical sampling lie in selecting information-rich cases from which one can study issues that are important to the purpose of the study; purposeful typical sampling provides an in-depth understanding of the cases [46]. Since this study intends to describe the typical scenario to understand the role of intermediaries in the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems, purposeful typical sampling is a suitable strategy. In addition, the snowball strategy was adopted to select interviewees since the role of intermediaries in bringing different firms together and forming collaborations started to become evident after several interviews. Then, using the social network analysis approach, the authors prepared a representation of the healthcare ecosystem in Montreal to fortify their observation concerning the role of intermediaries. Eventually, the authors focused on intermediaries and reached out to the relevant personnel to learn more about the scenario. The unit of analysis in this study is the organization that collaborates with different actors in the innovation ecosystem since the purpose of the study is to understand the process of collaboration in innovation ecosystems and the role of intermediaries in this process. Findings from multiple case studies are more likely to be more generalizable and robust than findings from a single case study [47,49].

3.1. Description of Cases

This study explores the context of innovation in healthcare in Montreal in which both local and international organizations are active in healthcare innovation, and, therefore, is an opportune context to explore collaborations between actors within and across ecosystems. The attributes of an innovation ecosystem [50] are present in the healthcare ecosystem in Montreal and have been studied by other researchers [51]. Diffusion and adoption of innovation in healthcare are crucial because emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are challenging the ability to deliver healthcare services in an effective, equitable, and sustainable way [52,53,54]. A significant number of actors in the healthcare ecosystem in Montreal have been using AI technologies. Therefore, organizations that are active in the domain of healthcare and AI were studied. The cases were carefully selected to ensure that they allow the literal replication logic [47].

Six organizations that act as intermediaries and connect different actors in the ecosystem and support innovations in healthcare were studied, and pseudonyms were used to preserve the confidentiality of the organizations studied. The first organization, Alpha, is a transdisciplinary, open-collaboration initiative that focuses on the development of innovative medical technologies to meet the needs of the healthcare community. This organization performs intermediary roles by facilitating the implementation of innovation in healthcare through a transdisciplinary approach, in an open innovation ecosystem in partnership with companies and the involvement of users. Another organization, Beta, is a health innovation hub that brings together different actors to build and launch healthcare technologies. This intermediary facilitates the acceleration and adoption of innovation in healthcare by supporting research, innovation, and integration of cutting-edge solutions in the healthcare system in the region. Gamma is a university-affiliated innovative hospital that uses AI to improve and adapt healthcare to the needs of the population. To bridge the gap between healthcare professionals and the AI sector, Gamma collaborates not only with other hospitals and research centers but also with different institutional and private partners. Delta and Zeta support initiatives in AI and healthcare by bringing together the research community, organizations, and institutions. They are collaborating across sectors to create innovative and effective AI solutions to ensure better healthcare. Theta propels high-potential technological innovation projects stemming from science and engineering by providing actors of the ecosystem with resources, training, tools, coaching, and contacts to support them. The focus of this intermediary is to encourage innovation activities and projects that are respectful of the environment, society, and people and that are aligned with SDGs.

This study followed rigorous methods in data collection and data analysis given that the credibility of the qualitative inquiry depends on different elements such as rigorous methods, the credibility of the researchers, and the philosophical beliefs in the value of qualitative inquiry [46]. Establishing the trustworthiness of the research by ensuring credibility and confirmability was also emphasized [55]. The details of data collection and analysis are reported in the following sections.

3.2. Data Sources

Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources: primary sources included interviews and documents provided by the interviewees, and secondary sources included websites of the organizations studied. The authors conducted interviews with one to four members of the management team of each organization, including CEOs and heads of the relevant streams. The authors conducted thirty conversational interviews. The interviews were typically from 45 min to 75 min long. Each interview began with a request for a description of the relevant organization’s activities and collaborations with other organizations. Each interviewee described his or her area in the organization, the overall activities of the organization, and collaborations with other organizations. With further probing, the interviewees discussed their collaborative activities in detail, including how the collaboration started. The procedure used in this study adhered to the research ethics guideline of the university of the authors, and data were collected upon approval of the research ethics board of the university. All data were collected upon the informed consent of the interviewees.

Before conducting the interviews, the authors consulted the organizations’ websites to collect information about their activities, the industries, and ecosystems in which they operate, whether they support innovation, whether they collaborate with other organizations, who the collaborators are, what the reasons for the collaborations are, how the collaborations proceeded, and whether and how such collaborations facilitate the diffusion of digital technologies and innovation. Knowing the information beforehand helped us to select suitable cases [47], on the one hand, and to triangulate the data using the information available on company websites and documents and information provided by the interviewees, on the other hand. Triangulation of data sources provides more accurate information and increases the validity of the analysis [46,48]. The authors consulted the websites of each of these organizations for relevant information available and examined the industry reports and internal documents that were provided by the interviewees. Relevant news about the organizations’ activities published online was also studied.

3.3. Data Analysis

Qualitative content analysis [56] and narrative analysis strategies [57] have been used to understand how organizations engage in collaborations with other organizations. Qualitative content analysis is appropriate in this context because this approach focuses on interpreting and describing the topics or themes that are evident in the content of the communication. The narrative strategy is also suitable for analyzing data in such circumstances. The narrative strategy enables researchers to analyze data in case studies with high accuracy with the rich contextual information provided and details of the context [57]. This strategy involves the construction of a detailed story from the raw data and enables researchers to incorporate analytical elements in the text. It is also possible to compare data by using the narrative strategy. Both strategies complement one another in this study since the data were collected from multiple organizations. Moreover, these strategies are helpful, on the one hand, to study the changes that unfold over time, and, on the other hand, to find patterns in the data [57,58].

At first, the authors organized the qualitative responses of the interviewees in first-order categories to identify the process of collaboration between actors in different ecosystems. To begin with, the data within each case were analyzed to gain familiarity with the data and obtain a preliminary understanding. Next, the data across cases were analyzed to identify the patterns [48]. The steps mentioned by more than one interviewee were included in the process. As mentioned above, after several interviews, the authors realized that the references to the role of intermediaries in bringing different actors together and forming collaborations were recurrent. Therefore, in the second stage, the authors cycled between consulting the relevant literature and further data analysis, using the relevant literature to sharpen the insights yielded by the inductive process. The data were constantly compared with the relevant literature to create an increasingly close fit between cases as well as to improve the creativity and reliability of the analysis [59]. After many iterations between data and the literature, what emerged was an iterative process of forming a collaborative relationship between actors in different ecosystems and the roles of intermediaries in different steps of the collaboration process. The details are reported in the following section.

4. Analysis and Findings

4.1. The Role of Intermediaries in the Collaboration Process

This study provides a detailed understanding of the process of collaboration in innovation ecosystems and the role of intermediaries in the process. The authors began by exploring the context of collaboration between actors in the ecosystem and found that intermediaries facilitate the collaboration between actors by connecting different actors in the ecosystem. The role of intermediaries in bringing different firms together and forming collaborations started to become evident after several interviews. Therefore, to fortify the observation concerning the role of intermediaries, the authors built a representative model of the collaboration network of the healthcare ecosystem in Montreal (Figure 1). The circles in the figure represent organizations, referred to as ecosystem actors, involved in healthcare innovation in Montreal. Different colors of actors in Figure 1 show that the actors in the healthcare ecosystem in Montreal come from different domains, including private, public, support, and educational institutes. There are some actors that play the intermediary role by connecting different actors, which eventually facilitates collaboration between actors, innovation in healthcare, and the adoption and diffusion of innovation throughout the ecosystem. This network model was built to show the collaborative connections between actors in the ecosystem and the role of intermediaries in building such connections.

With further analysis of the interviews, the authors identified that forming a collaborative relationship between actors within and across ecosystems involves four steps (

Table 1. The role of intermediaries in the process of collaboration.

Steps	Definition	Role of Intermediaries
Planning	The step of evaluating possible resources, opportunities, and requirements to work with actors within the same ecosystem or in different ecosystems.	Not significant Example quote: “Normally, they want to talk to you because they have already started thinking of, for instance, a French company coming to North America…Then, what you do is accompany them, answer all their questions.”
Meeting	The step of making the acquaintance of potential partners within the same ecosystem or in different ecosystems.	Yes Example quote: “Actually, we are in a position to do a lot of introductions and networking…and, putting different partners together.”
Matching	The step of obtaining a clear understanding of common visions and objectives of potential partners.	Yes Example quote: “Intermediaries are matching different companies and universities.”
Implementing	The step of starting the collaboration and related activities to integrate into an ecosystem.	Yes Example quote: “When they are ready to cut the ribbon, we are there to help them with communication, press release so that people know that they are in town.”

) and that intermediaries play significant roles in three of the steps: meeting, matching, and implementing. However, all intermediaries do not play the roles in the same way; some intermediaries provide more support at the beginning of the process while some provide support at the end of the collaboration process. The authors also observed that there are actors that provide support throughout the collaboration process. For example, Theta supports the collaboration process until the end. In some cases, intermediaries do not cease to support actors after the implementation of the collaboration but continue to support innovation projects and the adoption and diffusion of innovation.

Through different events, an organization can learn about local markets and specific customer needs to better identify opportunities for the diffusion of digital technologies and innovation. Therefore, an organization can find an opportunity to collaborate first and plan to expand later. For example, one interviewee from Theta mentioned, “Sometimes, it is the local guy who wants to grow. Then he needs our help to convince the headquarter that here is the right place to be”. Thus, the authors find that intermediaries play significant roles in the meeting, matching, and implementing steps and that the planning step occurs without a significant influence of the intermediaries.

Thereby, a model of the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems elucidating the role of intermediaries was developed. The model is presented in Figure 2. Details of the steps in the collaboration process and the role of intermediaries are presented in Table 1. The findings are elaborated below.

4.1.1. The Role of Intermediaries in Planning for Collaboration

In the planning step, an organization evaluates possible opportunities, resources, or requirements for collaboration with another organization in the same or a different ecosystem. An organization’s decision to work with partners is influenced by different factors, such as the resources available to the organization and the availability of complementary knowledge or resources with the partners. Before forming a collaborative relationship, a firm needs to assess the strategic logic for working with a partner before selecting a partner [40]. For instance, the interviewee from Alpha mentioned, “We have to focus on our funding, our money, and on what we have a better chance of making a difference with our competitors…That is how we choose where to invest”. Although it is not possible to pin down the specific reason for a firm’s decision to work with a partner, firms are aware of the changes happening in the market and the need to move forward. For example, with regard to nonlocal collaborations, firms are ready to deal with the changes in the local market and expand when possible because the local market may become saturated, or the customer demands may change with time. Therefore, “if you want to grow, you need to leave”, the interviewee from Beta said, “that is the organic growth. It is fine, it is okay, but that is going to stop at one moment in time. and we need to be ready when it stops…supplement this with the acquisition”. Often, it is the nature of the organizations that they always work with partners. For example, another interviewee mentioned, “We systematically worked with foreign partners…by default”.

However, the interviews conducted by the authors indicate that the decision is made by the firms without any significant involvement of intermediaries (as shown in Figure 2). This is evident in the comment of an interviewee from Theta, “normally, they want to talk to you because they have already started thinking of, for instance, a French company coming to North America, but is it within six months?…Within five years?…You never know…And sometimes, the seed is already a small plant. Then, what you do is accompany them, answer all their questions”. Another interviewee mentioned, “It is not just us selling…as a collaborative place. In fact, we realize that because international players told us that”. In the same line, the interviewee from Alpha said, “There are times when I talk to people who are…outside Quebec or even outside of Canada for potential…just looking for a set of experts, expert opinions or we just happen to have someone who is interested in what we’re doing here”. Therefore, the authors conclude that an organization’s plan to work with partners in different ecosystems depends on its resources and abilities along with other internal factors, and intermediaries can play an important role once the decision is made.

4.1.2. The Role of Intermediaries in Facilitating the Meeting between Potential Partners

Proposition 1. 

Intermediaries facilitate the meeting between potential partners within and across ecosystems.

Intermediaries are particularly helpful when an organization is ready to collaborate with other actors; in such circumstances, it searches for opportunities to expand and tries to make the acquaintance of potential partners within and across ecosystems. From different industry events and conferences arranged by intermediaries, firms come to know about what is going on in the industry and market, whether there are new products or inventions, what has changed recently, who are the big players, who are the newcomers, etc. Intermediaries are instrumental in facilitating interactions between actors regardless of whether the actors are in the same ecosystem or in different ecosystems [9,10]. They often arrange pitching contests and product demonstrations for startups to communicate their value offerings to unfamiliar potential collaborators [9,42]. For example, “there are, in fact, many different ways to meet them. It can be like, through events and conferences normally”, the interviewee from Beta mentioned. The interviewee from Gamma mentioned, “They came to our events in Strasburg where we worked with other organizations there to witness the whole thing, and then they started working with us. It’s…always a similar pattern”. Intermediaries support new relationship development intentionally by arranging activities such as networking events or unintentionally by providing contexts, due to their affiliation with different actors in the ecosystem, to gather potential partners. During these events, firms can learn about local markets and specific customer needs to better identify opportunities for the diffusion of digital technologies and innovation.

Intermediaries create physical or virtual meeting places for potential partners to communicate, which is evident in the statement of the interviewee from Delta, “actually, we are in a position to do a lot of introductions and networking…and, putting different partners together”. During these events, potential partners can interact and exchange their ideas leading to innovative projects. The interviewee from Beta said, “During these conferences, there were times when I had opportunities to let people know that I was on the look…I was looking out for companies to acquire…Then, I met a broker that was specialized in merger and acquisition…And this broker fed us with many names of the potential companies to acquire…So, yeah, the broker was very useful in that matter, in meeting that organization”. Similarly, the interviewee from Gamma said, “we had got to know through…the conference…They came to our events…and then started working with us”.

Therefore, intermediaries provide opportunities to meet and collect information about potential partners or to meet other intermediaries such as brokers who can facilitate the process of finding a partner in different ecosystems. For example, an interviewee from Beta said, “This broker fed us with many names of the potential companies to acquire…So, we finally did this; we looked at six financial acquisitions. The sixth one is the one that materializes. We officially acquired the company, which is our first step in the US market”. Similarly, an interviewee from Theta aptly mentioned, “If we were not there, for example, for the outreach we do, a lot of companies would not be in here. Or they would not even think about being here”. He said, “We have clusters and agencies that are putting those players together to create collaboration”. In the end, it is apparent that intermediaries play significant roles in bringing actors within and across ecosystems together.

4.1.3. The Role of Intermediaries in Facilitating the Matching of Potential Partners

Proposition 2. 

Intermediaries facilitate the matching of potential partners within and across ecosystems.

In this step, organizations try to obtain a clear understanding of the common visions and objectives of potential partners. There are different firm-specific issues that affect a firm’s nature of business activities and its decision to collaborate with actors in other ecosystems; depending on the product a firm manufactures or the services it renders, the firm will choose its partners to work with. For example, the interviewee from Delta pointed out, “It is really important to have a vision of what you want, how you want this project to go, how you want the partners to look in, and how you actually want to build this entire network and get people on board”. The presence or absence of a similar vision among partners is, therefore, crucial for successful collaborations. Although each firm is a different entity with specific characteristics, there are other factors in an ecosystem that affect the firm’s activities. A firm will look for commonalities in a potential partner; “so, what’s the big thing I was looking for are the points in common and having a framework that allowed everybody…to kind of have a have role and at the same time having a framework”, the interviewee from Delta mentioned. Firms often look for complementary resources or knowledge in distant locations [12,60], which can be facilitated by intermediaries. For example, one interviewee mentioned that “intermediaries are matching different companies and universities”.

Potential partners need to have a clear understanding of the objectives of the collaboration. Firms need to understand whether they share a compatible mission and values to work together. The absence of a clear understanding of the objectives of the investment may lead to the failure of the collaborative projects even though neither partner is at fault. For example, while discussing a failed merger, the interviewee from Beta mentioned: “We sign the agreement and we merge, …I found out that very soon after the official merger that we would not be able to do this”. The partner was looking to serve a different set of target customers, whereas Beta was not at all interested to work with that particular customer segment. As a result, they had to cancel the agreement. As an interviewee said, “We target companies and sectors that we think are the best”. Often, a significant amount of time and resources are required to find a matching partner. As is evident in the comment of an interviewee from Theta, “Sometimes, it is the local guy who wants to grow. Then he needs our help to convince the headquarter that here is the right place to be”. He said, “So, we meet these companies, we try to attract them, and you know, you need to meet a lot of companies to end up finding one that would be like…oh, yeah, that is interesting”.

4.1.4. The Role of Intermediaries in Implementing Collaborations

Proposition 3. 

Intermediaries facilitate the implementation of collaborations within and across ecosystems.

In the final step, the collaboration starts. However, although an organization finds a matching partner in the same ecosystem or in a different ecosystem, the role of intermediaries in the cross-ecosystem collaboration is not over. For example, the interviewee from Alpha said, “Then, we all work together in order to agree…what are the rules for the certification process…that’s a collaborative work”. The interviewee from Theta mentioned, “We help them with immigration, we accompany them through the immigration process”, and he said, “When they are ready to cut the ribbon, we are there to help them with communication, press release so that people know that they are in town”. Tasks related to starting a business or moving to a new location include preparing the new setups, moving employees or hiring new employees, and adapting to the new environment. One interviewee from Theta aptly pointed out, “It would be fun if they decide to come and my job is over, and there is nothing else to do. Well, that is not the case…now the real work starts”. All these are challenging issues and require considerable effort from all involved. It is important for the local actors to know the possible opportunities and positive impacts of the incoming business so as to establish a reliable and mutually beneficial network.

Robust ecosystems comprise stakeholders from both private and public sectors [12]. In innovation ecosystems, actors such as suppliers, producers, and customers from the private sector and government and regulatory bodies from the public sector work together to facilitate the adoption and diffusion of innovation. As presented in Figure 1, we observe the same scenario in the healthcare ecosystem in Montreal. For example, the interviewee from Delta mentioned, “We have partnerships, and we fund things…I can think of some examples like…So, there are companies that we work with that have offices in Quebec…that are not based in Quebec”. She said, “So, we have ongoing discussions with them”. Collaboration across ecosystems might often be difficult due to industry-specific rules and regulations or differences in organizational culture. Therefore, to succeed in a new ecosystem, it is critical for an actor to know other actors in the new ecosystem such as local businesses, financial institutions, and government officials who can aid the actor to acclimatize in the new ecosystem. Intermediaries play an important role in this context, as one interviewee from Theta pointed out, “We are creating connections…we are putting foreign companies in relationships with all the different people that they need to talk to in order to set up shops here”. Another interviewee mentioned, “Once they are in, we keep accompanying them. That means two, three, or four years of time. Later on,…they say, you know what…the project is going so well that we are thinking of growing. Ok. Then, the process starts all over again”.

4.2. The Role of Intermediaries in the Diffusion of Innovation

Proposition 4. 

Intermediaries support the diffusion of innovation by facilitating collaboration between actors within and across ecosystems.

Intermediaries play crucial roles in the diffusion of digital technologies and innovation because they have access to information that is not publicly available; they “have the capacity internally to provide that information, make benchmark and analysis”, as one interviewee from an intermediary organization mentioned. After analyzing and coding the data—the conversation and information available in the sources mentioned in the methodology section—a four-step process to form a collaborative relationship between actors within and across ecosystems was identified. The four steps of the collaboration process include planning, meeting, matching, and implementing; however, the process is not necessarily a sequential one.

Innovation intermediaries can expedite the diffusion of digital technologies and innovation by being informed of the market demands and conveying those demands to the innovators. For example, intermediaries can place “more weight in the purchasing power through innovation than just the lowest bidder”, mentioned one interviewee while discussing the purchase of scientific equipment in healthcare organizations. He also mentioned that the government and the intermediaries “are playing an excellent role to stimulate innovation and trying to make the healthcare system more efficient in terms of outcome”. Having collaboration with innovation intermediaries drives innovation in organizations not only to deal with the current innovation challenges but also to be prepared for the future because being affiliated with intermediaries “inherently gives you the mandate to drive innovation, it could drive research, and it could also drive the creation and generation of next-generation healthcare professionals”. One interviewee mentioned that “our ultimate goal is to include innovation in the continuum of the healthcare system. If it does not happen then the innovation has not occurred. For something to be considered innovation, it really has to be in use”. This particular intermediary brings together clinicians and end-users with entrepreneurs and innovators to build and launch technologies that improve people’s lives.

By supporting the diffusion of digital technologies and innovation, innovation intermediaries also facilitate digital transformations in organizations. One of the organizations studied is working towards the goal of “transforming the experience of healthcare through an integrated model of research, innovation, and implementation that is patient-centric and informed by large-scale data science”. Organizations need to work with ecosystem actors who have credibility in their field to successfully diffuse an innovation, and intermediaries can connect organizations to those influential actors to enhance the credibility of innovations. For example, “If you develop a cardio product, you need cardiologists around that can validate and assess that your product is good…to have the support from key opinion leaders helps for the next step…we work with research centers…organizations in the pipeline”. Innovation intermediaries actively connect the supply and demand sides of the market by forging links between innovation seekers and innovation providers. An innovation intermediary “identifies, inspires, and accelerates innovation” by mobilizing “external public and private partnerships” and by helping the “industry partners to understand the innovation and navigate requirements of a system” to integrate the innovation in the system.

Eventually, the collaborative relationships between actors pave the way for them to access complementary knowledge and adopt innovation not only in their own ecosystems but also in different ecosystems. It is not always easy for an organization to find information about organizations within an ecosystem; the task becomes even more difficult when it looks for information on organizations in different ecosystems. Intermediaries can arrange face-to-face meetings with potential collaborators by arranging events such as meetings, conferences, shows, etc. For example, an organization may not have a clear idea of with whom to work in a new location; the decision can be influenced by other actors in the network and can be made at any time that is convenient to all parties involved.

To sum up, this study finds that intermediaries facilitate collaborations between actors in innovation ecosystems and that they play significant roles by supporting actors in their meeting with potential collaborators, in finding collaborators with matching interests, and in implementing collaborations as long as necessary. The next section presents the implications of the findings and a model for sustainable innovation ecosystems.

5. Discussion

This study attempts at understanding the process of collaboration in innovation ecosystems and the roles of intermediaries in the process. Conducting multiple case studies, the authors find that the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems is an iterative process with four steps. Our findings highlight three steps in which intermediaries play roles to facilitate the collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems and the diffusion of innovation. First, by having connections with different actors in an ecosystem, intermediaries can provide information about potential partners and arrange different events to meet individuals from different organizations. Second, intermediaries can collect and provide specific information about an organization or find an organization to match the innovation interest of another organization. Finally, intermediaries facilitate the integration of an organization into the focal ecosystem. The findings support our major research hypothesis that intermediaries play significant roles in coordinating collaborations between actors in innovation ecosystems as well as facilitating the adoption and diffusion of innovation. Thus, they contribute to the development of sustainable innovation ecosystems and help achieve SDGs. Thereby, this study highlights the relational development roles of intermediaries, in which they support ecosystem actors to access knowledge, technologies, and other resources for innovation.

Our findings contribute to the literature on innovation ecosystems by providing a detailed understanding of the process of collaboration in innovation ecosystems as well as providing an empirical foundation for the roles of intermediaries in relational developments within and across ecosystems. Figure 3 presents a model to illustrate the role of intermediaries in innovation ecosystems: from facilitating collaboration to supporting sustainable development.

Understanding the process of collaboration in innovation ecosystems and the role of intermediaries in the process has multiple implications for theory and practice. First, the findings will guide different actors in innovation ecosystems towards efficient collaboration to obtain sustainable innovation ecosystems. Second, intermediaries support the diffusion of innovation by connecting different actors in innovation ecosystems. Third, a sustainable innovation ecosystem and timely diffusion and implementation of innovation will ensure sustainable development. The implications of the findings are discussed below.

The authors find that intermediaries play a very powerful role by alleviating information asymmetries, connecting firms with other actors and experts, and developing mutual understanding between potential partners, which is in line with emerging studies on this topic [22,34]. Intermediaries facilitate the collaboration process by arranging for potential partners to meet and discuss possible collaborations in innovative projects, providing necessary information to find a matching opportunity, and in the case of different ecosystems, supporting the incoming organization in implementing the decision to engage with a new ecosystem. Given the barriers to entry in different markets and the lack of an existing network, intermediaries can provide a premise for interaction between potential collaborators. Intermediaries often have sectoral specialization and varying degrees of international connection and provide essential support for internationalization to occur and facilitate negotiations with prospective partners [9,24,42].

Collaboration is essential to reach the necessary scale of research efforts, production, and distribution of digital technologies and innovation [29]. Earlier studies found that intermediaries play important roles in connecting different actors, navigating different interests, and lowering coordination costs in ecosystems. For example, innovation intermediaries support the diffusion of innovation in various ways which include, but are not limited to, creating knowledge links between organizations, processing and brokering of information and knowledge, sharing knowledge about specific technologies, providing knowledge-intensive services, and advising policymakers [22,23]. Therefore, maintaining an ongoing and deeper collaboration is essential to advance knowledge and technologies and digital transition [29,38]. By building connections between actors within and across ecosystems, innovation intermediaries can support the diffusion and adoption of digital technologies and innovation to bridge the gap between actors, improve their innovation performance, and enhance growth in target sectors.

Intermediary activities are typically considered internally oriented within local ecosystems. However, this study also finds that, based on their connection with actors in different local and international ecosystems, intermediaries can provide significant support to both incoming and outgoing firms in overcoming challenges in new environments. Our findings related to the activities of intermediaries are in line with the observations about the activities of innovation intermediaries noted by Schepis [42], that innovation intermediaries facilitate relationship development between start-ups and partners in new markets. Actors may not always rely on formal networks but may access valuable information and connection through informal connections. In an ecosystem, partners can collaborate flexibly through loosely coordinated development and experimentation and deal effectively with uncertainties [43]. Intermediaries, being embedded in different networks and ecosystems, support firms to access new information, complementary capabilities, resources, and trusted referrals, as well as reducing the time to access required information and develop relationships [2,9,12,21,33,42].

Ecosystems enable firms to set up bilateral and multilateral alliances and enhance competitive advantages. The interaction between firms in innovation ecosystems can be collaborative and competitive at the same time, and it goes beyond available opportunities and constraints [27,61]. Ecosystems differ in their scope, structure, and nature of relationships on which they are built [43]. For instance, actors within an ecosystem perform complementary activities such that the activities of one actor are more valuable for another actor than for other actors [62]. Increased global integration may also force firms to build an integrated global ecosystem by attracting actors from different countries to maximize network effects. In addition, such international partnerships play significant roles in achieving SDGs [24]. The authors found evidence in this study that both local and international firms, across different ecosystems, are active in healthcare innovation and that innovation intermediaries are supporting them in all possible ways to facilitate the diffusion of digital technologies and innovation.

Our findings also have implications for achieving sustainable innovation ecosystems and SDGs. There has been a growing mandate among actors from diverse backgrounds to become collaborative stakeholders in dialogues about the sustainable management of ecosystems [44]. There has also been increasing interest in understanding the connection between innovation and sustainability [11,20,25,26,63]. Sustainable development is a big challenge for all innovation ecosystems [25]. This study finds that intermediaries increase relational proximity between actors in innovation ecosystems and enable them to pursue opportunities in distant locations efficiently and in a more agile manner. For example, AI can be an important mechanism to achieve targets related to SDGs [17,39]. Achieving SDGs requires investments in relevant technologies and infrastructures [18]. The sustainability of innovation ecosystems depends on the ability to continuously adapt to the changes in the external environment to maintain productivity and efficiency [6,11,25]. Therefore, regulations and policies should be adapted to the transition and transformation taking place in the environment to strengthen collaboration between actors, better manage the innovation ecosystem, and remain sustainable.

This study also provides implications for leveraging intermediaries to support innovation, develop sustainable innovation ecosystems, and achieve SDGs. To begin with, the findings can help policymakers to develop clear AI strategies to support the adoption and diffusion of innovation as well as strategies focused on SDGs. Diverse interests of actors in innovation ecosystems might often be challenging for the adoption and diffusion of innovation [24,64], making it more difficult not only to obtain both sustainability in innovation ecosystems but also to achieve the relevant SDGs. As typical inhabitants of ecosystems [4,7], intermediaries can be helpful in this context. They can support firm-level and system-level innovation in various ways, for example, by creating knowledge links between organizations, sharing knowledge about specific technologies, providing knowledge-intensive services, and advising policymakers [22,23]. Therefore, to develop sustainable innovation ecosystems, policymakers need to pay more attention to intermediaries. Another implication is that the findings of this study provide an understanding of the roles of innovation intermediaries that will enable firms to make efficient use of their resources and policymakers to devote resources to building and maintaining ecosystems as well as developing target sectors to foster innovation. A globally integrated ecosystem will widen the scope and opportunities for all actors to diffuse and adopt innovation. Intermediaries can be involved in policy co-creation through different initiatives such as developing innovation projects, providing funding, and creating platforms. Above all, understanding the role of intermediaries in coordinating the activities of ecosystem actors will also be helpful not only in ecosystem governance but also in developing sustainable management tools to obtain sustainability and SDGs for the betterment of the broader society.

To sum up, this study identifies three relationship-enhancing activities by intermediaries that facilitate the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems: first, the facilitation of meetings between actors within and across ecosystems by arranging different events; second, the facilitation of the matching between potential collaborators by collecting and providing information about specific actors; finally, the facilitation of the implementation of collaborations. Integrating these activities into policies will increase the resilience and generativity in local innovation ecosystems, leading to sustainable management of innovation ecosystems [6,44]. It is often difficult for new businesses to initiate communication with larger businesses because of their relative inexperience in the industry. Intermediaries play a critical role in shaping collaborations between actors in innovation ecosystems through their different roles of brokering, facilitating, and configuring to mobilize resources between actors [14]. Therefore, there are scopes to integrate services and develop strategic partnerships between firms, intermediaries, and government agencies to achieve their respective objectives. The findings will also help policymakers to acknowledge the roles of both individual firms and intermediaries to increase cooperation within and across ecosystems.

6. Concluding Remarks

This study offers a nuanced understanding of the roles of intermediaries in the process of collaboration between actors in innovation ecosystems and in supporting the diffusion of innovation. Using a multiple-case design approach, the authors investigated six organizations that act as intermediaries in the healthcare ecosystem in Montreal. They began by investigating how the process of collaboration in innovation ecosystems unfolds and found that the process of collaboration is iterative. The process includes four steps: planning to work with partners, meeting with potential partners from different ecosystems, finding a matching partner for potential collaboration, and implementing collaborations across ecosystems. Actors can iterate over the first three steps many times before implementing the collaborative relationship. The findings highlight that intermediaries play significant roles in the last three steps to facilitate the process of collaboration between actors in different ecosystems. First, by having connections with different actors, intermediaries can provide information about potential partners and arrange different events to meet individuals from different organizations. Second, intermediaries can collect and provide specific information about an organization or find an organization to match the interest of another organization. Finally, intermediaries facilitate the integration of the incoming organization into the new ecosystem.

This study also finds that by facilitating collaboration between actors within and across ecosystems, intermediaries support the diffusion of innovation. The findings have important implications for building sustainable innovation ecosystems and achieving SDGs. Due to diverse actors and interests, and sustainable economic development, effective and sustainable ecosystem management is emerging as a vital societal issue. In this context, inclusive action can be used to balance the efforts for solving SDGs by using AI. This study also highlights the relational development roles of intermediaries that facilitate an organization to access information, connect to potential partners, and integrate into local ecosystems. Given that innovation is a key mechanism for sustainable development and that intermediaries play important roles in the development, adoption, and diffusion of innovation, policymakers need to find ways to involve intermediaries in the process of policymaking as well as in the process of developing sustainable management tools.

Due to the nature of intermediaries, the implications of the findings of this study reach beyond the context of innovation ecosystems. At the same time, this study is not free of limitations. The scope of this study is limited to understanding the role of intermediaries in the process of collaboration in ecosystems from the intermediary perspective. It will also be interesting to understand whether the process of collaboration and the roles of intermediaries are different in different types of ecosystems by developing innovation networks of specific actors, for instance, actors involved in developing different technologies or in different industries. Therefore, conducting further studies to compare the perspective of collaborators might provide deeper insights into the motives and outcomes of specific collaborations. Future studies may also benefit from a deeper investigation of the direct and indirect role of intermediaries in the diffusion of innovation and the process of collaboration between actors within and across ecosystems.