DEVELOPING INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT OPEN INNOVATION: CASE STUDIES FROM THE EAST OF ENGLAND

This paper investigates the role that publicly funded infrastructure can play in supporting the implementation of open innovation at particular locations. Three case studies of open innovation infrastructure projects in the East of England illustrate contrasting approaches to delivering an infrastructure to support open innovation. The paper analyzes the cases using concepts from the literature on open innovation, regional innovation systems and business incubation. The cases reveal insights on how emerging management theories can have direct influence on regional innovation policies, and reveal the complexities of managing changing multi-stakeholder interests in relation to an approach to supporting innovation whose success is inherently hard to measure.