The Socio-Economics of Digital Ecosystems Research:Policy Analysis and Methodological Tools

from an Argentinean Case Study

Lorena Rivera León1, Rodrigo Kataishi2 and Paolo Dini1

(1) Department of Media and CommunicationsLondon School of Economics and Political Science

(2) Instituto de Industria, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento Buenos Aires, Argentina

Final Policy WorkshopLondon, 23-24 September 2010

Indicators, data, statistics

Smaller samples, greater reliance onqualitative research methods,non-equilibrium, complexity

Where does our (LSE + UNGS) work fitin the context of this workshop?

Policy

NationalSTI policy

Social capitalSocial capital

GovernanceGovernance

Multi-stakeholderprocesses

Multi-stakeholderprocesses ICTsICTs

Absorptioncapacity

Absorptioncapacity

ConnectivityConnectivity

Regionaldevelopment policy

(LSE, UNGS)

Overview Digital Ecosystems & critical reflections

Theory

Empirical data

Regional indicators

Policy visualisation tool

Rivera-León, L, Kataishi, R and Dini, P. The Socio-Economics of DigitalEcosystems Research: Policy Analysis and MethodologicalTools from an Argentinean Case Study, in Innovation Supportin Latin America and Europe: Theory, Practice and Policy inInnovation and Innovation Systems, selected papers fromthe 1st ISLAE Conference, Glasgow Caledonian University,3-4 December 2009, Ashgate. Forthcoming.

Digital Ecosystem as a ‘Value Stack’

Government ICT adoption policies for SMEs

Knowledge and collaborationlayer

SocialInteractions

Services:- any licensing model- B2B, B2C, etc

BusinessInteractions

AcademicResearch

AcademicResearch

DistributedOpen Source Infrastructure

(Public Good)

BusinessCollaboration: - OSS governance - Business modelling languages - StandardsEfficient & Reliable P2P Network

Distributed TransactionCoordination

Distributed AccountabilityIdentity and Trust

Privateinvestment

How do we critique this functionalist, normative, ‘mechanical’, technocentric, and Durkheim-nostalgic perspective ondevelopment and innovation?

Is there any room for the individual? Can DE research connect microto macro?

Is it just a systemic, structuralist, collectivist and creative responseto neo-liberalism?

How does DE research relate to modernity debates, Western or otherwise?

Questions

Has Foucault already begun to answer all these questions with his‘apparatus’ (‘dispositíf’)???

Empirical data (Rodrigo)

Theory (Paolo)

Policy design & implementation (Lorena & Rodrigo)

DE HypothesesDE Hypotheses

Hypotheses & Feedbacks

Digital Ecosystems Research Tries to ReconcilePolar Opposites: Meta-Epistemological Framework

Structuralist/Collectivist perspective Individualist perspective

(Giddens)

Rationalism perspective Empiricism perspective

(Popper)

Subjectivist perspective Objectivist perspective

(Giddens, Popper, Gadamer)

Symmetry perspective(cell metabolism, ontogeny)

Context dependence perspective(evolution, phylogeny)

(Holland, Kauffman)(Essentialism) (Existentialism)

Regional MaturityGrade: EU

New Methodology forDE Adoption Readiness: LAC

‘Evolution’ of Determinants for DE Adoption Readinessand DEs Hypotheses

Determinants of the ‘Successful’ Deployment ofCollaboration Networks through DEs

Production and Institutional Networks in Morón

Morón (ARG): Sectoral

Networks vs. theMetalworking

Network

Morón (ARG):Institutional

Networks(All surveyed and

2nd degree)

Mapping the Characteristics of a Set of Enterprisesin a Given Region

Policy Analysis Visualisation Tool(inverted variables)

Policy Mixes for Enterprises and Regions

Aggregate DE Readiness Indicators for Morón

(originalvariables)

(invertedvariables)

New Policy Indicators for Future Research?

Conclusions

The introduction of ‘new’ indicators that promise to be particularly effectiveis the consequence of applying a more uniformly self-consistentepistemology to the methods and methodologies used in SSHresearch that inform policy-making

DEs as an approach that considers technology adoption as a social process driven by social networking and collaboration provides a contextthat facilitates the exploration of possible responses to conflictingnormative requirements through a collective process guided byreflexive governance

In this paper we have introduced ‘formally’ network analysis and policyanalysis to DE research from a socio-economic perspective, withan interesting consequence:

The same policy analysis visualisation tool facilitates the optimisation ofpolicy mixes and recommendations at different levels: regional andmulti-regional level, cluster level, sector level, firm level