INNOVATION FLOWS IN THE ECOSYSTEM OF DIGITAL PUBLIC GOODS

Research into digital public goods (DPGs) has emerged as a stream in information systems. However, little is known about how participants innovate in such platforms while retaining the status of a public good. To fill this gap in knowledge, this paper builds on our understanding of digital entrepreneurial ecosystems to conceptualize and report on preliminary results from the case study of “Altinn”, a DPG in Norway innovating the funeral administration system. To explore how innovative entrepreneurial ecosystems are created and sustained around DPGs, an ongoing qualitative methodology involving interviews and ethnography is presented. The preliminary data being analyzed provide insights into the idea of innovation flows to explain the unique nature of DPGs as entrepreneurial ecosystems. The anticipated contribution is towards a cross-disciplinary information systems and entrepreneurship theorization to understand DPGs as entrepreneurial ecosystems, and the collaborative innovation flows in them.