Towards the Functional Roles of an Innovation Laboratory as a Platform for Innovation

Abstract

The main question guiding this paper is ‘how are innovation laboratories a potential source of assistance for businesses in undertaking innovation projects?' Because of the focused and case-based nature, the extant literature on innovation laboratories falls insufficient in explaining the functional contributions of innovation laboratories towards a systematic, efficient, effective, and ultimately successful innovation management of products, processes and services of business organizations. In this esteem, the present study examines the current practices and functioning of innovation laboratories in field settings by employing a multistep research methodology. As a result, eight key functionalities and thirty associated offerings of innovation laboratories that add substantial value in maximizing the chances of success are herein determined and discussed. Moreover, the findings reveal that a particular innovation laboratory focuses on only a subset of identified functionalities and thereby influences the innovation process at a different stage and in a different manner. Accordingly, the paper debates the impacts of different functionalities towards the innovation process.

A Criteria Catalog of Innovation Facilities at Higher Education Institutes: An Observational Approach

“…Service Portfolio: The second characterizing attribute of an IF is its service portfolio. As the innovation process is a multifaceted activity; supporting it in a successful and effective way requires an array of diverse services (Memon & Meyer, 2020). In this regard, all the services offered by The combination of methodological skills available from human facilitators and cross cutting technology assists the students in assessing the potential of their ideas, predicting any future obstacles, and thus reducing the risk factor involved in the commercialization of ideas.…”

“…Process Support: The third functional aspect that the IFs can be characterized are the extent and scope of innovation process supported by their offered services. As discussed above, IFs are offering an array of varying services; certain services target to facilitate certain aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation process and therefore bring different functional benefits (Memon & Meyer, 2020). In this regard, while few IFs offer all-inclusive support throughout the innovation process from idea generation and evaluation to the idea implementation and commercialization.…”