Ecosystem mapping technology to understand innovation challenges in MSME Sector: An analysis of the handicraft sector in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This paper discusses an application of ecosystem mapping technology to visualize the innovation ecosystem in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. Ideally, actors in the MSME sector should function as a system, exchanging knowledge, information and other resources, to uplift innovation and create economic value to a country or a region. Visualizing this system enables to understand the deficiencies in the exchange of resources among actors; the deficiencies, which makes innovation and growth challenging to MSMEs. Based on this idea, the study presented in this paper focuses on the handicrafts sector in Sri Lanka and attempt to map its ecosystem based on the manually collected publicly available data on social media. The subsequent analysis of the support ecosystem map reveals a major deficit in the exchange of information technology resources, which hinders the digital innovation and transformation of the MSMEs in the handicrafts sector. The paper further discusses the implications and future research directions.