Abstract

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) draw on inter-firm resources to innovate. As a result, SMEs find themselves embedded in complex local ecosystems that they do not fully understand. We used the co-design visualisation approach to help actors visualise, understand, and activate entrepreneurial actions to address this challenge. The study engaged SMEs, researchers, and innovation policymakers as examples of key actors in a local ecosystem. The first co-design workshop was at a Botswana leather incubator with 15 manufacturing SMEs. Then we evaluated our approach with 65 participants from research and policy environments across seven African countries. Lastly, we conducted a workshop with 20 SMEs from Botswana Innovation Hub. Our findings suggest that using ecosystem visualisations as rigorous heuristics empowers actors to identify opportunities for entrepreneurship. Implications for this research emphasise the role of co-design visualisations in navigating complex and less developed entrepreneurial ecosystems to drive regional strategy and innovation.

摘要

中小型企业 (SME) 利用公司间资源进行创新。结果，中小企业发现自己嵌入了他们不完全了解的复杂的当地生态系统。我们使用协同设计可视化方法来帮助参与者可视化、理解和激活创业行动以应对这一挑战。该研究将中小企业、研究人员和创新政策制定者作为当地生态系统中关键参与者的例子。第一个联合设计研讨会在博茨瓦纳皮革孵化器举行，有 15 家制造业中小企业。然后，我们与来自七个非洲国家的研究和政策环境的 65 名参与者一起评估了我们的方法。最后，我们与来自博茨瓦纳创新中心的 20 家中小企业进行了研讨会。我们的研究结果表明，使用生态系统可视化作为严格的启发式方法可以使参与者识别创业机会。这项研究的意义强调了协同设计可视化在驾驭复杂和欠发达的创业生态系统以推动区域战略和创新方面的作用。