Emerging Ecosystems Empowered by AI and IoT Technologies

As latest advancements signify the fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) became the focal points for innovators. IoT-enabled technology can be used to gather and explore huge amounts of data from both virtual and physical environments, and AI provides the means for effectively processing and manipulating resulting information to optimize or automate processes. In this chapter, the related state of the art is presented, along with the characteristics that enable the creation of hybrid innovation ecosystems. An overview of IoT and AI platforms is included, which can be utilized even by non-experts to compose advanced cost-effective services. Also, related notions such as interoperability and engagement are also discussed. Although such components can be applied in a multitude of domains, to provide a concrete example of innovation enablement, the smart grid ecosystem is employed. Here, participants, either from the supply or the demand side, take advantage of IoT and AI technology to address new business requirements that arise.

Building and leveraging the innovation ecosystem and clusters: universities, startups, accelerators, alliances, and partnerships

This article focuses on the concepts of ecosystems and clusters, with an emphasis on their importance for building vibrant a vibrant and life science/biopharma industry. We illustrate the underlying principles through work published in academic articles and in the popular press. These are highlighted in brief overviews of several mature and emerging ecosystems in the United States, Europe and Australia. The US perspective is based on our own professional life experiences in Boston, Silicon Valley, San Diego, and Pittsburgh, and, with a shorter preview of Philadelphia where we’ve both done business and have close colleagues. The article ends with a look to the future in a concluding section titled “What’s Coming Next”. It is our attempt to look at the future of digitally enhanced collaborative innovation. This is based on our observations during the first 9 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, social distancing, and working from a distance. We ask, what is the potential impact of these emerging digital technologies on work and advancement of the agenda in the life sciences industries? Will the pandemic transform or disrupt the borders and mode of collaboration of traditional definitions of ecosystems and clusters as we define them today?

Do emerging ecosystems and individual capitals matter in entrepreneurial re-entry’ quality and speed?

This study analyses the influence of environmental and individual conditions on the quality and the speed of entrepreneurial re-entries in emerging economies after a business failure. We propose a conceptual framework supported by the institutional economic theory to study the influence of environmental conditions; and human and social capital to study the influence of individuals’ skills, experiences, and relationships. A retrospective multiple case study analysis was designed to test our conceptual model by capturing longitudinal information on occurred events, trajectory, and determinants of twenty re-entrepreneurs. Our results show that the entrepreneurial experience and type of venture influence the accelerating effect of re-entrepreneurship, as well as how environmental conditions moderate the quality and speed of entrepreneurial re-entries. We provoke a discussion and implications for multiple actors involved in the re-entry of entrepreneurs after a business failure.

Ecosystem Legitimacy Emergence: A Collective Action View

Ecosystems—communities of interdependent yet hierarchically independent heterogeneous participants who collectively generate an ecosystem value proposition—often emerge through collective action, where ecosystem participants interact with each other and the external environment. When such organizational forms are emerging, they require legitimacy to overcome the “liability of newness.” Adopting a collective action lens and taking a legitimacy-as-process approach, we propose a process model of ecosystem collective action, where an orchestrator, complementors, users, and external actors together drive ecosystem legitimacy. We identify three key legitimation processes—discursive legitimation, performative legitimation, and ecosystem identity construction—and demonstrate how these three processes together facilitate the emergence of ecosystem legitimacy and reduce the liability of newness of emerging ecosystems.

Hedgerows as Ecosystems: Service Delivery, Management, and Restoration

Hedge density, structure, and function vary with primary production and slope gradient and are subject to other diverse factors. Hedgerows are emerging ecosystems with both above- and belowground components. Functions of hedges can be categorized as provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting ecosystem services; these functions include food production, noncrop food and wood production, firewood production, pollination, pest control, soil conservation and quality improvement, mitigation of water flux and availability, carbon sequestration, landscape connectivity and character maintenance, and contributions to biodiversity. Urban hedges provide a relatively equitable microclimate and critical connections between green spaces and enhance human health and well-being through contact with biodiversity. Soil and water conservation are well researched in tropical hedges but less is known about their contribution to pollination, pest control, and biodiversity. Establishing a minimum hedge width and longer intervals between cutting of temperate hedges would enhance biosecurity and promote carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Hedges have a global role in mitigating biodiversity loss and climate change, which restoration should maximize, notwithstanding regional character.

Introduction

This chapter introduces San Cristóbal Island, and specifically the village of El Progreso, which occupies a Zone of Special Use inside the Galápagos National Park. It outlines various problems faced by the park, especially those associated with invasive organisms and the growth of tourism. It juxtaposes the image of a people-free nature park with the growth of novel or emerging ecosystems, and discusses current disagreements in biological conservation. It presents the study of historic human landscape transformation within the framework of Historical Ecology by combining history, ecology, and archaeology. A chapter by chapter framework of the book is presented.

Historical Ecology and Archaeology in the Galápagos Islands

Historical Ecology and Archaeology in the Galápagos Islands explores human history in the Galápagos Islands, which is today one of the world’s premier nature attractions. From its early beginnings, the Galápagos National Park connected a dual vision of biological conservation with responsible tourism. However, despite its popular perception as a pristine nature park, the archipelago has experienced protracted interactions with humans at least since its accidental discovery in 1535. This book contextualizes six years of interdisciplinary archaeological and historical research on San Cristóbal, the easternmost island in the archipelago. It focuses on the interior highland community of El Progreso and specifically the preserved vestiges of a 19th-century sugar plantation, the Hacienda El Progreso, which left the most intensive historic footprint of human activity in the islands. It did not do this alone, as other islands, particularly those with potable water sources, were varyingly impacted by human encounters. Proceeding within a framework of Historical Ecology, the book integrates archaeological research with historical and ecological study and incorporates three interconnected perspectives: 1. globalization and the increasing integration of the islands into an expanding network of human interests; 2. anthropogenic transformation of distinctive island habitats into novel or emerging ecosystems; and, 3. changing popular and scientific perceptions of nature and ecotourism’s role in biological conservation, preservation, and restoration.