Ecosystems in places and partnerships as herding spaces

There has been a growing interest in explaining the role of place in different organisational settings. Yet, there is a lack of understanding of how a place can shape inter-organisational relations in partnerships and ecosystems. In this paper, we conceptually develop dynamic and recursive relationships between innovation ecosystems, cross-sector partnerships as herding spaces, and places that include the natural and regional environments. We demonstrate these dynamic relationships in the illustrative case of an emerging circular textile ecosystem in Southwest Finland, which was developed and nurtured by a cross-sector partnership. Drawing on our literature review and showcasing this illustrative case, we introduce a conceptual model and discuss how place can play an enabling or disabling role in the development of sustainable innovation ecosystems, and that the recursive relationships can be best understood with the creation of vicious and virtuous cycles. We emphasise the role of path dependence in the relationship between ecosystems and the places they are embedded, and in doing so we bridge the gap between innovation ecosystems and natural and regional environments. We position nature and regions as platial scales and highlight the crucial role of cross-sector partnerships as herding spaces to develop and nurture the sustainable innovation ecosystems that help the regeneration of places.