Rethinking how we do things : how fostering socio-ecological perspectives reshapes innovation management

Abstract

Socio-ecological perspectives have a long history across multiple disciplines and fields, grounded in systems-based approaches that offer a holistic view of the deeply interconnected dynamics of social and natural elements. This dissertation investigates two concepts rooted in these perspectives that have emerged in the business and management domain in recent decades: the ‘Circular Economy’ and ‘Ecosystems’. The Circular Economy is presented as a transformative framework to address consumption-driven linear economic models of the twentieth century, whereas Ecosystems provide a broader lens on economic activities, promoting collaboration and the creation of shared value. Managers and organisations have struggled to integrate these approaches into their innovation practices because existing frameworks, routines, and logics are anchored in linear, firm‑centric, and market-based assumptions. More specifically, these difficulties are procedural or structural issues, but they are also interpretive: they stem from how innovation is understood, framed, and enacted within organisations. The literature still offers insufficient theoretical understanding of how socio‑ecological perspectives, including the Circular Economy and Ecosystems, reshape innovation management thinking by altering the cognitive processes, dominant logics, and sensemaking through which managers and organisations interpret and enact innovation. Employing a qualitative inquiry that comprises two conceptual reviews and two empirical studies, this research demonstrates that fostering socio-ecological perspectives for innovation management is a cognitively informed practice, reshaped by distinct cognitive features, with dualities and tensions arising from these concepts, and enacts reflexivity. The findings contribute to innovation management, notably the circular innovation and ecosystem orchestration literatures, by showing how socio-ecological perspectives reshape innovation through shifts in dominant logics and sensemaking in practice. In addition, the dissertation contributes novel insights to the cognition literature, advancing the knowledge of these perspectives’ integration into innovation management practice. For policymakers and practitioners, it provides recommendations on how policy instruments and infrastructure can support the fostering and management of innovation, particularly regarding grand challenges, and on how professionals and organisations can navigate the ambiguities and complexities that socio-ecological perspectives introduce.