Design and management of innovation laboratories: Toward a performance assessment tool

Abstract

There is a strong emergence of new spaces to foster innovation all over the world (Fablabs, Living Labs and Design Factories, among others). Past experiences have shown these types of projects involving “innovation laboratories” are at risk of not succeeding in their goals. Although several studies have tackled the problem of design, development and sustainability of innovation laboratories, there is still a gap in understanding how the capabilities and performance of these environments are affected by the strategic intentions at the early stages of design and functioning. Throughout this work, eight frameworks from the literature that analyze innovation laboratories are identified and compared. Then, based on both literature and the authors' experience, an updated framework is proposed as the basis for a guidance tool for researchers and practitioners aiming to assess or to adapt an existing project. As part of the operationalization process of the framework, a maturity grid‐based assessment tool is proposed to evaluate the maturity degree of an innovation laboratory. Afterwards, to evaluate the viability and to integrate the perception of innovation laboratory managers, an exploratory study with answers from fifteen laboratories from five different countries is performed. Insights and implications for emerging and already existent projects of innovation laboratories are then discussed.

Análise dos investimentos na capacidade de inovar nos indicadores de risco das empresas brasileiras

“…Nota-se nesta definição que a inovação é retratada pelos seus resultados, isto é, aquilo que se espera com a inovação. No entanto, os resultados de inovação não ocorrem de forma aleatória e, tampouco, são obtidos sem uma estrutura que os viabilize, ou seja, empresas inovadoras precisam ter um aparato institucional e estrutural que envolve pessoas, máquinas, equipamentos, materiais, serviços entre outros inputs que contribuam à construção de uma capacidade de inovar (CROSSAN; APAYDIN, 2010;GODIN, 2017;OSORIO et al, 2019).…”

“…Diante da complexidade que envolve a análise dos investimentos na capacidade de inovar das empresas, ainda há uma lacuna quanto aos métodos de aferição do risco do recurso inovação (BASSO; KIMURA, 2010). Em que pese a dificuldade metodológica, os investimentos em inovação, assim como qualquer outro investimento, devem reportar um retorno compatível com o seu risco (OSORIO et al, 2019).…”

“…Os investimentos em inovação, assim como qualquer investimento, são caracterizados pela expectativa de retorno futuro. Entretanto, a possibilidade de variações desse retorno é o que caracteriza o risco do investimento e de qualquer recurso organizacional, sendo necessário que a firma identifique os riscos e tenha ações para gerenciar os possíveis efeitos negativos ou não desejados que os resultados podem reportar (MATTA;OLIVA;VASCONCELLOS, 2015;OSORIO et al, 2019). O risco dos investimentos em inovação é decorrente da incerteza quanto ao retorno desses gastos, tendo em vista, a natureza incerta dos processos de inovação no que diz respeito à eficácia (geração de novos produtos ou processos) e ao tempo em que esses resultados ocorrerão (SANTOS; BASSO; KIMURA, 2018).…”

Connecting the strategic intent of innovation labs and projects: the case of the Green Fablab

“…The development of innovation laboratories (hereafter innovation labs) within different contexts including business, public and educational is having a growing interest in recent years in the academic and industrial landscape [1], [2]. Some reasons include that these spaces can favor the development of competences of innovation and collective creativity [3] and new working practices that rely on collaboration, co-design, co-production, co-creation approaches [4].…”

“…In the citizen arena, the notions of "personal fabrication", Do-It-Yourself practices or "making" is often social and collaborative approach, entailing sharing and modifying online designs, cooperation on projects and/or shared use of tools in shared spaces [8]. As a consequence, there is a proliferation of diverse types of spaces with spatial practices that provide material and social environments for these initiatives such as hackerspaces, makerspaces, fablabs, open workshops, living labs, co-working spaces [2].…”