Managing Innovation Communities: Best Practice Reports

At the core of this chapter is the question whether and how innovation communities can be actively supported and managed, e.g. by steering or influencing their configuration or offering structures and methodological background. While the case studies in the proceeding Chap. 3 have given insight into five innovation communities and into the effects and interaction observed between the members of those communities, the following three practice fields have a different scope. They were selected and accompanied to gather experience with the practical aspects of managing innovation communities. The three practice fields overlap with three of the case studies, so that interesting insights can be gained from the comparison of the analytical background of the innovation community and the experience in practical management. Thus, all of the practice fields focus on radical innovations that take place in various sectors of high-tech industries (e.g., information and communication technologies, renewable energies and material sciences). To avoid conflicting interests between the theoretical analysis and the research on managerial support of innovation communities, the practice fields were accompanied by different researchers than those who analyzed the case studies. While the empirical findings presented in Chaps. 2 (survey) and 3 (case studies) made clear that innovation communities have a significantly positive influence on the success of innovation projects, the following Chap. 4 will show that the levels of the innovation system the community touches upon, as well as the development phase the community is in, will require different measures to build up, support and organize a community. Hence, there is no standard recipe for the management of innovation communities, merely some recommendations on measures and activities one could take into account. Finally, as the communities change over time, constant adaptation of the applied measures and management tasks is required.