• STI Policy Review
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.35-59
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• 2016

The strategic importance of innovation ecosystems has received increased attention from both the academic and policy perspectives. However, there is only limited empirical evidence on the importance of these ecosystems from the perspective of younger firms. This study focuses on the role of ecosystems for young innovative companies (YICs) and is based on a unique set of phone survey data from Finland and South Korea. The results are threefold: (1) Finnish YICs participate more actively in ecosystems than Korean YICs; (2) on average, Korean YICs report to have experienced lower ecosystem impact compared to Finnish YICs; (3) in both countries, key organizations of the ecosystems are represented on the board of directors in about one-third of the sample firms.