KNOWLEDGE ECOSYSTEMS AND INNOVATION RESILIENCE IN REGIONAL MSMES: LINKING UNIVERSITY COLLABORATION, ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY, AND EXPERIMENTATION

Abstract

This conceptual and integrative review develops a framework for knowledge ecosystems and innovation resilience in micro, small, and medium enterprises. It addresses the problem that regional MSMEs often encounter valuable external knowledge but struggle to evaluate, adapt, combine, and retain it in ways that improve innovation under resource and capability constraints. Drawing on the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities, organizational learning, absorptive capacity, social capital, and resilience, the paper explains how university-industry interaction, knowledge translation, absorptive routines, bounded experimentation, interorganizational learning can be organized as mutually reinforcing routines. The proposed pathway moves from problem diagnosis and capability mapping to bounded experimentation, evidence review, resource reconfiguration, and learning retention. No primary survey, interview, experimental, administrative, or statistical data are claimed. The framework links these mechanisms to innovation relevance, faster adaptation, collaborative capacity, knowledge retention, regional resilience and identifies managerial, institutional, and research implications suitable for resource-constrained enterprises.