A maturity model to align innovation ecosystem actors in health: The case of the Concept Maturity Levels[Une métrique de maturité pour aligner les acteurs d’écosystèmes d’innovation en santé : Le cas des Concept Maturity Levels]

Healthcare organizations face numerous clinical, technological, and regulatory challenges to meet the evolving needs of patients. These challenges make the management of innovation projects complex and difficult to grasp for one organisation alone, pushing them to adopt ecosystem strategies. To function, these innovation ecosystems require alignment efforts between heterogeneous actors. While the literature on actor alignment has developed in recent years at the intra-organizational level, little research addresses the concrete realization of this alignment at the inter-organizational level. In this article, we explore the development of such alignment within innovation ecosystems using maturity metrics, such as the Concept Maturity Levels. Our analysis of several use cases in healthcare innovation ecosystems in France reveals that actors use Concept Maturity Levels to map, order, and standardize their activities, skills, and resources, thus enabling their alignment. We contribute to the literature on maturity metrics by suggesting a more extensive and exploratory use of maturity metrics at the inter-organizational level, due to the number and heterogeneity of actors involved. We also contribute to the literature on ecosystems by suggesting concrete practices for aligning actors through the use of maturity metrics. Finally, we present the implications of these findings for the healthcare sector and various opportunities for future research.