An Investigation of Centers for Innovation

Abstract

The center for innovation model is a growing and prominent phenomenon across corporate, government, nonprofit, and university contexts. Based on the name, one would infer an aim is to serve as a mechanism that catalyzes innovation. A further aim would be to serve as exemplars of technology development, knowledge development, and knowledge dissemination in the course of delivering a given mission. To date, little work has examined the center for innovation phenomenon and so there is a need to investigate these inferences and provide an understanding for the basis and rationale for why organizations across various contexts are pursuing centers for innovation. Examining mission statements followed by an electronic survey of 66 centers for innovation, we characterize the practices, rationales, success factors, challenges, and other descriptors of these centers in an effort to understand their operating characteristics. Results suggest four archetypes for the center for innovation model based on constituency. Results also show similarities across success factors and challenges, with sustainable funding clearly a common challenge.

Citation

Kahn, K. and Dempsey, J. (2012), "An Investigation of Centers for Innovation", International Journal of Innovation Science, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 89-100. https://doi.org/10.1260/1757-2223.4.2.89