The new Space Economy (SE) represents a transformative frontier and an "extreme case" laboratory that redefines how organizational value, capabilities, knowledge, and innovation are created, distributed, and sustained under severe operational constraints. Off-Earth operations - e.g., long-duration space missions, commercial space stations and orbital habitats, and lunar/Martian supply networks - serve as pilot projects that sharpen organizational, management, and biological theories. As artificial intelligence (AI) transitions from a passive tool to an active participant in (inter-)organizational cognitive architectures and ecosystems - sensing, inferring, and deciding alongside humans -, the Space Economy demands an integrated Ecology of Knowledge that bridges Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) with Open Innovation (OI) and Neuro-Organizational Behaviour.
In extreme off-Earth environments, human-machine teams and hybrid supply networks operate under unprecedented conditions, including orbital trajectories, signal latencies, severe environmental uncertainty, microgravity, isolation, and confinement. These extreme factors render human biological mechanisms - e.g., stress physiology, cognitive fatigue, and neurostructural connectivity - central determinants for (inter-)organizational/team performance, innovativeness and decision-making.
Open Innovation serves as an overarching and enabling paradigm to leverage knowledge ecosystems, multi-sided platforms, and Quadruple Helix partnerships, bridging upstream space capabilities with downstream terrestrial applications. OI mechanisms - e.g., crowdsourcing, orbital additive manufacturing/3D printing, and In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) - facilitate real-time data sharing and zero-waste closed-loop supply networks in space missions as well as terrestrial climate and humanitarian crises. Simultaneously, OI enables cross-sector knowledge spillovers regarding real-time biometric monitoring (e.g., EEG, fNIRS) and human-AI cognitive architectures and ecosystems. This cross-pollination protects shared team cognition, mitigates burnout, and safeguards worker safety and human dignity across high-strain Earth and off-Earth operational frontiers.
Managing these complex systems requires a living knowledge ecosystem perspective where human cognitive limits, physiological state monitoring, automated AI decision agents, and circular supply chain routines interact symbiotically.
SE’s theoretical mechanisms, operational protocols, and neurobiological insights directly translate to terrestrial extreme contexts facing acute disruption. The severe physical constraints of space operations mirror the critical demands of climate change adaptation, post-disaster humanitarian logistics, deep-sea exploration, health outbreak responses and, finally, provide transferable frameworks for deploying resilient, decentralized, and zero-waste supply chains in resource-scarce or disaster-stricken environments on Earth. Concurrently, the systemic convergence of isolation, high stakes, and severe biological strain in space missions parallels the physiological and cognitive stress experienced by emergency medical personnel during outbreaks, rescue teams in climate catastrophes, and crews in extreme (e.g., nuclear or polar) installations and, finally, equips scholars with generalizable knowledge and models to enhance (inter-)organizational/team coordination and innovativeness in terrestrial contexts.
This track aims at examining, under the lenses of integral ecology, how knowledge living in hybrid human-AI-technological ecosystems is cultivated, governed, and protected under extreme pressure. By bringing together OSCM, Open Innovation, resilience, circularity, and terrestrial-orbital synchronization with neurobiological underpinnings of team cognition and leadership under strain, this track provides a holistic forum to explore how organizations can leverage AI co-agents and bio-sensing technologies without eroding human dignity, safety, or cognitive diversity, thereby advancing responsible innovation and sustainable wealth creation both in space and on Earth.