A soft ecosystems methodology of digital innovation through a case study of the insurance industry’s response to connected cars

Digital innovations are increasingly the result of the combination of resources and skills beyond organisational boundaries and/or industries, resulting in the rise of a new organisational form – the digital innovation ecosystem. Studies of ecosystems have considered the structural, conceptual, and temporal aspects such as emergence, however, understanding of ecosystems in flux remains nascent. In particular, existing research focuses on change in the ecosystem rather than imagined (anticipated) change and its impact on the ecosystems future. To address this, we adopt a systems thinking perspective that builds on soft systems methodology and British Cybernetics to propose what we refer to as ‘soft ecosystems methodology– and introduce the notion of ecosystem-as-was, ecosystem-as-is, and ecosystem-to-be. We discuss this emergent methodology in light of the disruptive digital innovation faced by the car insurance industry.