  An innovation ecosystem is a multi-stakeholder environment, where different
stakeholders interact to solve complex socio-technical challenges. We explored
how stakeholders use digital tools, human resources, and their combination to
gather information and make decisions in innovation ecosystems. To
comprehensively understand stakeholders' motivations, information needs and
practices, we conducted a three-part interview study across five stakeholder
groups (N=13) using an interactive digital dashboard. We found that
stakeholders were primarily motivated to participate in innovation ecosystems
by the potential social impact of their contributions. We also found that
stakeholders used digital tools to seek "high-level" information to scaffold
initial decision-making efforts but ultimately relied on contextual information
provided by human networks to enact final decisions. Therefore, people, not
digital tools, appear to be the key source of information in these ecosystems.
Guided by our findings, we explored how technology might nevertheless enhance
stakeholders' decision-making efforts and enable robust and equitable
innovation ecosystems.
