Successful digital technology development: A multilevel and spatial approach on organizations and their ecosystems

The development of digital technologies in ecosystems became a key strategy for firms to achieve competitive advantages. However, despite the increasing importance of innovation ecosystems, only little is known about their spatial and multilevel structure. This study analyzes the impact of an organization's multilayer and spatial innovation ecosystem on the success of digital technology development. The authors estimate a multilevel model based on three levels by using data on 411,389 patents including 57,627 digitalization patents from the German and European Patent Office, which are nested within 25,017 organizations in Germany and a specific ecosystem, for the period from 2010 to 2021. The results show that the probability of developing a digitalization patent is higher for large firms than for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, an ecosystem of applied research organizations and universities as well as technology subsidies increases patent success of large firms in this field compared to more established technologies. SMEs, in contrast, only play a minor role in the development of digital technology, and the impact of their ecosystems and subsidies is less obvious. In addition, this study provides recommendations for technology managers and policy makers to support the transformation towards digitalization. • Effect of the multilayer and spatial structure of an innovation ecosystem on the success of digital technology development • Multilevel model based on three levels using 411,389 patents from the German and European Patent Office (2010−2021) • Probability of developing a digitalization patent is higher for large firms than for SMEs • Ecosystem of universities, applied research organizations and technology subsidies increases patent success of large firms • SMEs play a minor role and the impact of their ecosystems and subsidies is less obvious