The new metaphor of IB versus NIS

Contrary to popular belief that metaphor is commonly used in linguistics, this concept has attracted the attention of many researchers in order to understand the dimensions and complexities of new phenomena based on their correspondence with existing one. This approach has received a lot of attention in the field of innovation studies in the last three decades. On the other hand, the common metaphor for explaining the process of innovation, which is the system of innovation, in describing and analyzing the innovation phenomenon has shortcomings that the same shortcomings existed in the metaphor of the national innovation system. Therefore, in this paper, while explaining these shortcomings, and in completing the newer metaphor of the innovation ecosystem, a new metaphor to respond to the weaknesses of the systematic approach to innovation (innovation system) is introduced. Therefore, the main strategy of this research is metaphor analysis. The analytical results of the research show that all eight principles of metaphor validation in the IB are confirmed. Therefore, it can be said that the IB can be an effective framework for analyzing the innovation process and consequently a basis for extracting appropriate policy implications for the innovation space of countries. This new metaphor addresses the fundamental problems of national innovation system theory, such as overemphasis on the boundaries of the system and government intervention, neglect of environmental dimensions, and disregard for the concepts of co-operation, co-adaptation, and co-evolution in the innovation space of countries. It emphasizes the multi-ecosystem innovation space of each country due to the diversity of different sectors and technologies.