Permeable Boundaries
Biotechnology ecosystem is comprised of a large number of agents that are highly interdependent and interact non-linearly. High level of interaction leads to the emergence of more flexible modes of organizing (Powell, 1996). Biotechnology, a sector heavily relies on external collaboration (Arora & Gambardella, 1990), is an example of an open innovation system that is comprised of heterogenous networks that weave small, science-based biotechnology companies, investors, and nonprofit research organizations into a coherent regional ‘community which operate based on the principles of aggregation, self-organization and soft-assembly (Powell & Owen-Smith, 2004).