Creating and Maintaining Innovation Ecosystems in Cities : Institutional Work Approach

The innovation literature is growing rapidly and one of the main concerns is about the contexts that encourage and strengthen the results of innovation. Researches on innovation environments are still in its early stages. This paper sheds light on the process of fostering and developing an innovation ecosystem in cities with the perspective of institutional work, considering the need to institutionalize the collaboration. The method used was a multiple cases study, in a descriptive and processual approach. The study was conducted in two cities in Latin America: Porto Alegre and Florianopolis. The findings are about the process of institutionalization of collaboration that reflects on the development of the innovation ecosystem, which occurs in three phases of innovation ecosystem development, involving three groups of actors: leaders, supporters and community. In the first phase (Preparing for Collaboration), the practices are related to the leader’s group. The second phase (Strengthening Collaboration) expands the practices and adjust the focus to the supporter’s group. And the third phase (Disseminating Collaboration) keeps extending the scope and has relevance in the community’s group. Thus, the phases of evolution are related to the expansion of the range of institutionalization practices and the focus of the actor most involved