Grassroots Innovation Actors: Their Role and Positioning in Economic Ecosystems

Abstract

Innovation is no longer only dominated by large corporations or formal institutions. Grassroots innovation actors now play an important role in shaping the dynamics of local and global economic ecosystems. This research aims to examine how community innovation actors interact, build networks, and position themselves in the economic ecosystem. The research approach used was qualitative with a multi-case study on 10 local innovation communities in Indonesia, involving in-depth interview techniques, participatory observation, and document analysis. Data analysis was carried out using Social Network Analysis (SNA) assisted by NVivo 14 software. The results show that grassroots innovation actors who successfully build cross-sectoral collaboration networks with governments, businesses, and educational institutions have higher levels of sustainability than communities that operate in closed networks. They are not only beneficiaries, but also catalysts for local change. The implications of these findings are the need to design a national innovation policy that is more inclusive of community innovation, strengthening digital collaborative platforms, and developing the managerial capacity of the innovation community. This research contributes to the development of a more participatory and sustainable innovation ecosystem model.