Developed in 1935 by British botanist Arthur George Tansley, the term “ecosystem” primarily refers to the set of interactions that different species have with a specific environment (marine, terrestrial, etc.), but also with each other. Within an ecosystem, we always find an environment conditioned by physical and chemical elements (temperature, light, pH, etc.) and the living beings (fauna and flora) that inhabit it.
The distribution of living beings within an ecosystem is therefore not random, as it depends on their needs and environmental conditions. Furthermore, the specific relationships between living beings can vary: competitive relationships (access to resources, etc.), exploitative relationships (predation, etc.), and cooperative relationships (symbiosis, etc.).
The ecosystem, at the heart of life
In biology, analyzing ecosystems is essential to understanding how different species maintain their lives. Life indeed depends on all the interactions between elements, enabling exchanges of matter and energy, the basis of the food chain.
The fact is that today, even if it can be naturally disrupted, the balance of an ecosystem can be restored (e.g., after a fire, the recolonization of the territory by plants allows animals to return and the forest to its original state). However, in the face of human actions on the environment, some ecosystems are becoming increasingly vulnerable and threatened.
Extension of the concept
While this concept was initially used biologically, new disciplines have adopted it:
- In sociology: We speak of a social and political ecosystem to describe the relationships between individuals within a community and the links between different communities.
- In economics: In 1996, James Moore considered an ecosystem as the set of entities that interact in an environment to carry out common projects. In the economic sense of the term, an ecosystem therefore brings together all companies and their stakeholders (institutions, suppliers, institutions, customers, partners, etc.) who are in constant interaction and each contributes in their own way to achieving their common goal through commitments. This is the business ecosystem.
An infinite number of interactions for business development
In economics, the ecosystem emphasizes:
- Unity of action between different entities (the promotion of a common resource, the sharing of an ideology, or the development of joint projects);
- The importance of the connections a company builds daily with other stakeholders and the synergies this creates (these relationships and interdependencies contribute to business creation and innovation); The need to understand the environment in which we operate:
- Companies operate in a range of environments (economic, demographic, natural, political, financial, sociocultural, national, etc.) that interact with each other, must be taken into account, and must be worked with. The Greentech Innovation Ecosystem
In France, the Ministry of Ecological Transition is part of the Greentech Innovation ecosystem. It is made up of various stakeholders: startups, SMEs, incubators, investors, journalists, public sector stakeholders, etc.
The common goal? To promote innovative projects that support the ecological transition and foster ambitious and sustainable industrial solutions! Sources:Geoconfluence: https://bit.ly/3H55j9V
Kartable: https://bit.ly/3v5UnGE
Larousse: https://bit.ly/3h19SY7
- Pour l’Éco: https://bit.ly/3H6MumO
- Wikipedia (1): https://bit.ly/3InTBsF
- Wikipedia (2): https://bit.ly/3JHgIhR