


































Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 8, No. 2, 2025 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm 

112 

 

Original Paper 

Symbiosis and Evolution: Reconstructing the Digital Publishing 

Landscape Based on Innovation Ecosystem Theory 

Qiuhua Guo
1
 & Yunyin Huang

1
 

1 
University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China 

 

Received: October 10, 2025    Accepted: October 22, 2025    Online Published: November 7, 2025 

doi:10.22158/csm.v8n2p112                      URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v8n2p112 

 

Abstract 

Digital publishing companies generally face the challenge of insufficient innovation momentum during 

the transformation process. The innovation ecosystem is an innovation paradigm with the concepts of 

“resource sharing, value co-creation, diversified symbiosis, and collaborative innovation”. It is an 

emerging driving force for innovative development. This paper integrates the innovation ecosystem 

theory from management discipline into the field of digital publishing, examines the historical 

trajectory and progression of the theory by conducting a systematic literature review, and constructs a 

theoretical framework of the innovation ecosystem. With symbiosis and evolution as the core, the 

innovation ecosystem reconstructs the development landscape of digital publishing from an ecological 

perspective, and provides theoretical support for solving the innovation problems of digital publishing 

in terms of innovation concepts, organizational relationships, and innovation momentum. 

Keywords 

digital publishing, social sciences, innovation ecosystem, symbiosis 

 

1. Introduction 

In recent years, with the comprehensive layout of the Digital China initiative and the continuous 

advancement of the national cultural digitalization strategy, China’s digital publishing industry has 

demonstrated strong growth momentum. According to the “2023-2024 Annual Report on China’s 

Digital Publishing Industry” released by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, the overall 

scale of China’s digital publishing industry reached 1,617.968 billion yuan over the past year, 

representing an increase of 19.08% compared to the previous year. While the digital publishing 

industry demonstrates a positive development trajectory, it still faces numerous challenges that require 

urgent resolution. The main manifestations include: a shortage of talent in emerging publishing formats, 

insufficient R&D investment, weak digital copyright protection capabilities, insufficient innovation 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 8, No. 2, 2025 

 

 

113 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

capabilities, inadequate data resource development and management practices, and inconspicuous 

benefits from digital transformation etc., which restrict the continuous innovation of the digital 

publishing industry. Continuous innovation refers to the process of enterprises continuously launching 

innovative projects and realizing innovative economic benefits for a considerable period of time, 

emphasizing the sustainability of innovation in terms of time, effect growth and development. For the 

development of digital publishing, to achieve continuous innovation is to enhance the momentum of 

innovation and have a steady stream of innovation driving force. 

Innovation ecosystem is regarded as an emerging driving force for innovation development, which is a 

dynamically coordinated structure dominated by a common value proposition and composed of 

innovation activities of diverse participants. Much like a natural ecosystem, it continuously evolves 

through feedback loops with the external environment, thereby driving enterprises to pursue sustained 

innovation. Enhancing the innovation momentum in digital publishing is an internal requirement for the 

industry to improve its quality and efficiency. By building an innovation ecosystem, digital publishing 

firms can gain a perpetual source of innovation impetus. empowered by such ecosystems, digital 

publishing field may present a new landscape characterized by greater diversity, openness, intelligence, 

and integration. 

 

2. Literature Review 

2.1 Research on Digital Publishing 

In 2011, the former General Administration of Press and Publication of China first defined the concept 

and characteristics of digital publishing, stating: “Digital publishing is an emerging publishing format 

resulting from the integration of the publishing industry and high-tech, characterized primarily by the 

digitalization of content production, management processes, product forms, and networked 

dissemination channels”. The digital publishing industry is an emerging publishing format born from 

the integrated development of the publishing industry and digital technologies, such as media 

technology, network technology, and display technology. In research on the development of digital 

publishing, how to enhance innovation capacity and secure sustained momentum for innovative 

development has become an urgent issue requiring attention in the current digital publishing landscape. 

Based on a review of literature related to innovative development in digital publishing from 2023 to 

2025 retrieved from the CNKI database, this study identifies several key research focuses in the 

innovative development of digital publishing enterprises. These include: first, studies on high-quality 

development of digital publishing; second, research on the deep integration and development of digital 

publishing; third, investigations into new business models and formats in digital publishing; and fourth, 

examinations of how generative artificial intelligence technologically empowers digital publishing. 

These studies have explored approaches to fostering innovation in digital publishing from various 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 8, No. 2, 2025 

 

 

114 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

perspectives—including national strategy, industrial structure, production factors, and digital 

technology—laying a solid theoretical foundation for innovation studies in this field. However, against 

the backdrop of rapid global economic development and increasingly blurred industrial boundaries, 

there is a growing need to examine digital publishing through the lenses of dynamic development and 

ecological evolution. 

2.2 Research on Innovation Ecosystem 

The theory of Innovation Ecosystem originates from the field of management science. It emphasizes 

that grounded in shared value propositions, ecological subjects are driven to continuously engage in 

innovation activities through mechanisms such as openness, dynamic interaction, and symbiotic 

evolution. This process progressively enhances the vitality of the ecosystem and secures a sustained 

driving force for innovation. The origin of the innovation ecosystem can be traced back to the first half 

of the 19th century. 

The National Innovation System is the earliest theoretical source of the innovation ecosystem. In 1841, 

German economist Friedrich List proposed the “state system”, which is a combination of state 

proprietary factors and political economy, which believed that the German government should establish 

a state system to promote the development of modern German industry and economy in the case of 

obvious backwardness in German industry. Later, British scholar Alfred Marshall proposed the concept 

of “agglomeration”, suggesting that clustering generates effects that stimulate innovation (Carlino et al., 

2007), Bringing together similar or complementary companies in an area can not only trigger 

competition but also promote mutual learning, thereby stimulating innovative behavior. Entering the 

20th century, Schumpeter (1934) first proposed the concept of “innovation” in his Theory of Economic 

Development, clarifying the close connection between economic development and innovation. Further 

building on this, Lundvall (1985) pioneered the concept of “innovation systems”, arguing that 

innovation involves complex cooperative relationships and is the result of interactions among multiple 

actors within a system. 

Since Schumpeter introduced the concept of “innovation”, research in this field has excessively 

emphasized innovative activities themselves while gradually neglecting their social context and 

historical conditions. Consequently, when examining Japan’s rapid post-war economic growth in the 

latter half of the 20th century, Freeman (1987) proposed the concept of the “National Innovation 

System” to describe Japan’s successful catch-up. He defined it as a network of public and private sector 

institutions whose activities and interactions determine the development, introduction, refinement, and 

diffusion of new technologies. Building on this concept, Nelson (1993) conducted further research on 

national innovation systems, comparing and analyzing different systems and constructing a general 

model for their analysis. Cooke (1992) criticized this model, emphasizing the importance of regions 

and arguing that interactive learning between regions could significantly enhance innovation efficiency, 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 8, No. 2, 2025 

 

 

115 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

thereby introducing the concept of the “Regional Innovation System”.  

However, with the rapid development of internet technology and the deepening of economic 

globalization, innovation activities gradually transcended national and regional boundaries. The 

concepts of “National Innovation System” and “Regional Innovation System” were called into question, 

leading some scholars to propose “Cluster Innovation Systems” and “Sectoral Innovation Systems” as 

alternatives that are not constrained by geographical space. In his work The Competitive Advantage of 

Nations, Porter (1990) introduced the concept of “clusters”, describing them as geographic 

concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular field that foster innovative 

behavior through competition and collaboration. Porter’s approach of using industrial clusters to 

analyze the competitive advantages of nations or regions gained widespread acceptance in academia. 

Meanwhile, Malerba (2002) proposed the concept of “Sectoral Innovation Systems”, suggesting that 

market and non-market interactive learning processes within sectoral systems can generate new 

technologies and products. 

Social context and economic development have propelled research on innovation ecosystems. After the 

1990s, the rapid expansion and sustained growth of Silicon Valley in the United States prompted 

scholars to explore innovation from an ecological perspective, leading to increased focus on the 

Innovation Ecosystem. Over the past two decades, research on innovation ecosystem has sustained 

growing academic interest. continued to grow, and the research has gradually radiated from developed 

countries such as Europe and the United States to developing countries, and its ecological concept has 

been widely recognized by the world and has become a theory of great concern in the 21st century. 

In the context of business management applications, Moore (1993) was among the first to propose 

using the natural ecosystem as a metaphor for understanding the complex innovation environments in 

which enterprises operate. He argued that firms should not be viewed merely as members of a single 

industry but as part of ecosystems spanning multiple industries. Iansiti and Levien (2004) further 

proposed that only by adopting mutually beneficial and symbiotic strategies can enterprises maintain 

the coordination and stability of the innovation ecosystem. Building on earlier views, Adner (2006) 

proposed that an innovation ecosystem is a synergy mechanism through which firms collaborate to 

integrate their products into unified customer solutions. Adner (2010) focused on the innovation 

ecosystem itself, positing that a firm’s innovation is closely related to its environment and other 

ecosystem members. Through synergy mechanisms, enterprises interact with other members to create 

value that no single enterprise could achieve alone. 

An innovation ecosystem is a system that continuously self-reconfigures, self-emerges, and 

self-evolves in response to changes in the external environment to achieve sustained growth and value 

creation. Currently, with the rapid development and widespread application of digital technologies such 

as internet technology, big data, and artificial intelligence, innovation ecosystems are undergoing a 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 8, No. 2, 2025 

 

 

116 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

digital transformation of their actors, structures, institutions, and functions. Today, digital 

transformation has become pivotal to the continuous evolution of innovation ecosystems, making the 

exploration of their driving mechanisms under this context a research frontier. 

 

3. Theoretical Framework 

3.1 Innovation Ecosystem Theory 

The Innovation Ecosystem Model is a paradigm that emerges from platform-based networks, gathering 

innovative forces through shared value propositions. Within this system, participants spontaneously 

engage in resource sharing and collaborative co-creation centered around common value ideals, with 

the goal of achieving collective innovation and value generation. The core principles of the innovation 

ecosystem are symbiotic collaboration and dynamic evolution. Drawing an analogy to natural 

ecosystems, the innovation ecosystem transposes concepts such as communities, matter, energy, and 

information into the operational mechanisms of the innovation process—encompassing innovation 

actors, innovation resources, and the innovation environment. This forms a symbiotic and evolving 

system that continuously stimulates innovation activities, ensuring their stability and sustainability. 

As a new paradigm for driving innovative development, the innovation ecosystem provides sustained 

momentum for digital publishing by integrating the innovation activities of diverse actors and creating 

synergistic effects. Furthermore, the industrial characteristics of digital publishing—namely its 

openness, deep integration, and ecological nature—dictate that research in this field increasingly 

requires an in-depth exploration from an ecological perspective. Existing practices have demonstrated 

the feasibility of digital publishing enterprises constructing innovation ecosystems. By building such 

ecosystems characterized by multi-actor collaboration, enterprises have achieved boundaryless growth 

and sustained innovation. 

3.2 Symbiosis Theory 

Although the innovation ecosystem theory is still an emerging concept in the field of digital publishing, 

the symbiotic logic it embodies is widely referenced and applied in media studies in the form of 

symbiosis theory. Innovation ecosystem theory represents a further development of symbiosis theory, 

as symbiosis theory provides a robust theoretical foundation for digital publishing enterprises to 

construct innovation ecosystems. The term “symbiosis” originates from Greek. In 1879, the German 

mycologist Heinrich Anton de Bary first introduced the concept of symbiosis, pointing out that due to 

survival needs, two or more organisms depend on and interact with each other in certain patterns, 

forming a symbiotic relationship of coexistence and co-evolution.  

The concept of symbiosis expanded from biology to economics and social sciences in the mid-20th 

century, with symbiotic theory gradually extending to industrial symbiosis and industrial ecosystems. 

This theoretical framework has been widely applied to publishing studies, generating multidisciplinary 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 8, No. 2, 2025 

 

 

117 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

explorations in international communication, media convergence, digital transformation, and corporate 

integration. Notably, due to the interdisciplinary nature of digital publishing, symbiotic theory has 

found particularly extensive application in this field, thereby providing substantial theoretical 

foundation for constructing innovation ecosystems in digital publishing enterprises. 

 

4. Discussion 

Currently, the Innovation Ecosystem theory has been widely used in the research of regional innovation 

and industrial innovation. Applying the innovation ecosystem theory to the innovative development 

practices of digital publishing will help digital publishing enterprise transform their innovation 

concepts and build collaborative partnerships, which helps them strengthen their position within the 

ecosystem and sustain a steady flow of innovation drive. The innovation ecosystem, with symbiosis 

and evolution at its core, reconstructs the developmental landscape of digital publishing from an 

ecological perspective. It provides theoretical support for addressing innovation challenges in digital 

publishing through transforming innovation paradigms, reshaping organizational relationships, and 

acquiring sustained driving forces for innovation. 

4.1 Symbiosis: Transforming Innovation Concepts 

From the perspective of enterprise innovation strategy, the innovation ecosystem theory is conducive to 

guiding digital publishing enterprises to transform their innovation concepts. In the context of the rapid 

development of platformization, the most important form of competition today has changed from 

competition between enterprises to competition between platforms and platform ecosystems. Therefore, 

digital publishing companies need to change their innovative concepts. The innovation ecosystem 

theory guides the transformation of business strategy from simple joint operation to collaborative and 

systematic cooperation, from product competition to platform competition, and from independent 

development of enterprises to symbiotic evolution. Under the guidance of innovation ecosystem theory, 

digital publishing companies no longer regard themselves as a single closed organization, but openly 

evolve symbiotically with the entire ecosystem, creating value that cannot be created by a single 

enterprise. Digital publishing companies should make full use of digital technology, platforms, and 

artificial intelligence to build an open and diverse ecosystem, include stakeholders and value creators in 

their own ecosystem, and develop symbiotically with the entire ecosystem. 

4.2 Synergy: Building Collaborative Partnerships 

The innovation ecosystem theory facilitates the establishment of symbiotic, co-evolutionary, open, and 

collaborative organizational relationships for digital publishing enterprises. In an era where industry 

boundaries are increasingly blurring and the boundaries of innovation urgently need to be broken, 

digital publishing enterprises must seek new organizational forms to drive the integrated development 

of publishing. The innovation ecosystem represents a dynamic coordination structure, steered by a 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 8, No. 2, 2025 

 

 

118 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

common value proposition and composed of the innovative activities of diverse participants. Its 

innovation process is characterized by self-organizing properties and continuously evolves through 

feedback loops with the external environment, thereby supporting enterprises in sustaining innovation. 

Innovation ecosystem emphasizes non-contractual, interdependent governance relationships. Its 

self-organizing nature stems from the shared goal of value creation among ecosystem members, along 

with their interconnected, interactive, and interdependent complementarities. The complementary 

combinations generated by these multilateral dependencies possess a potential value-added effect, 

capable of infusing enterprises with diverse innovative vitality. Grounded in this theory, digital 

publishing enterprises need to build mutually beneficial and symbiotic relationships around a common 

value proposition. By leveraging shared values as a bond, they can engage in value co-creation and 

value sharing, ultimately achieving collaborative innovation among diverse actors. 

4.3 Evolution: Cultivating Ecosystem-driven Momentum 

From the perspective of the source of innovation driving force, the innovation ecosystem arises from 

the ecology itself, and ecological power is the most important endogenous driving force of digital 

publishing enterprises. The interconnection and mutual constraint of various elements in the ecosystem 

require the symbiosis and co-prosperity of various innovation subjects, which leads to the ability of the 

innovation ecosystem to continuously evolve, continuously promote the growth of dominant new 

species, and constantly transcend itself. Just as natural ecosystems have ecological characteristics such 

as openness, diversity, integrity, and stability, which jointly promote the symbiotic evolution of 

ecosystems, innovative ecosystems also gain the power of continuous evolution, development and 

progress from their ecology. The innovation ecosystem is conducive to digital publishing enterprises to 

promote the continuous innovation activities of ecosystem subjects through openness, dynamic 

interaction, symbiosis and co-evolution, so as to continuously enhance the ecological power, enable 

members to gradually benefit from ecological advantages, and enhance the consistency of the 

ecosystem, promote the high-order evolution of the ecosystem, so as to maintain the vitality of the 

system and obtain continuous innovation driving force. 

4.4 Connection: Forging Open Ecosystem Network 

Digital publishing possesses strong connectivity. Compared with traditional publishing, it is primarily 

characterized by the digitization of content, management processes, and product forms, as well as the 

network-based dissemination channels. As a digitally empowered form of publishing, digital publishing 

achieves cross-boundary integration through digital technologies such as 5G, big data, and artificial 

intelligence. 

Furthermore, digital publishing exhibits distinct ecological attributes. It interacts with numerous 

ecological elements, forming a symbiotic and co-evolutionary ecosystem. The digital publishing 

industry has developed different value chains around various stages—content production, technology 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 8, No. 2, 2025 

 

 

119 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

operation, and product marketin—which interweave and develop synergistically, collectively driving 

the evolution of the digital publishing ecosystem. 

The development model of multi-agent collaboration and symbiosis, along with the deeply integrated 

cross-sector development formats, endows the digital publishing ecosystem with features such as 

openness, complexity, diversity, dynamism, collaboration, and self-organization. These ecological 

characteristics create a natural foundation for digital publishing enterprises to build an innovation 

ecosystem. Within this dynamic and open system, digital publishing and various ecological elements 

depend on each other and co-evolve, working together to achieve the overarching goal of innovation. 

 

5. Conclusion 

Digital publishing enterprises need to construct an innovation ecosystem to address their 

transformational development and innovation momentum issues. From an academic research 

perspective, the interdisciplinary integration of digital publishing with multiple disciplines and fields 

represents a developmental trend in the field. Transformational development, deep integration, 

copyright issues, and technology application in digital publishing have become key research foci. These 

research areas have long transcended the boundaries of traditional publishing studies, necessitating 

multidisciplinary approaches to digital publishing research. Currently, there are relatively few studies 

examining digital publishing innovation from an ecological perspective. This research draws on the 

theory of innovation ecosystems from management science to provide a ecological perspective for 

digital publishing innovation studies. Based on the literature tracing and sorting out the theory of 

innovation ecosystem, this paper points out that innovation ecosystem can reshape the digital 

publishing landscape in terms of changing innovation concepts, building collaborative organizational 

relationships, building continuous innovation driving forces, and building open ecological networks, 

providing an ecosystem perspective for solving the problem of innovation dynamics in digital 

publishing. However, the exploration of digital publishing innovation ecosystems in this paper is 

limited to theoretical deduction. Future research should employ specific methods such as case studies 

and data analysis to provide practical evidence for the development of digital publishing. 

 

References 

Adner, R. (2006). Match your innovation strategy to your innovation ecosystem. Harvard Business 

Review, 84(4), 98-148. 

Adner, R., & Kapoor, R. (2010). Value creation in innovation ecosystems: How the structure of 

technological interdependence affects firm performance in new technology generations. Strategic 

Management Journal, 31(3), 306-333. 

 



www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm               Communication, Society and Media                Vol. 8, No. 2, 2025 

 

 

120 
Published by SCHOLINK INC. 

 

Carlino, G. A., Chatterjee, S., & Hunt, R. (2007). M.Urban density and the rate of invention. Journal of 

Urban Economics, 61(3), 389-419. 

Cooke, P. (1992). Regional innovation systems: Competitive regulation in the new Europe. Geoforum, 

23(3), 365-382. 

Freeman, C. (1987). Technology Policy and Economic Performance: Lessons from Japan. London: 

Pinter. 

Iansiti, M., & Levien, R. (2004). Strategy as ecology. Harvard Business Review, 82(3), 68-126. 

Lundvall, B. A. (1985). Product Innovation and User-Producer Interaction. Industrial Development 

Research Series, 31. Aalborg University Press. 

Malerba, F. (2002). Sectoral systems of innovation and production. Research Policy, 31(2), 247-264.  

Moore, J. F. (1993). Predators and prey: A new ecology of competition. Harvard Business Review, 

71(3), 75-86. 

Nelson, R. (1993). National innovations systems: A comparative analysis (p. 541). New York: Oxford 

University Press. 

Porter, M. E. (1990). The Competitive Advantage of Nations.John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 

Schumpeter, J. A. (1934). The theory of economic development. Journal of Political Economy, 1(2), 

170-172. 


