Innovator Networks

Abstract

From the perspective of innovation economics evolving institutions, innovating entrepreneurs, technological change, and creative destruction are the driving force of economic growth (Schumpeter, 1942). To mitigate the uncertainty involved in the creation of new processes, products, or business models, innovation exhibits an intrinsic collaborative nature. Innovator networks form through formal and informal collaborations between different agents, including firms, institutions, universities, state agencies, inventors, and other stakeholders of the innovation system. Being embedded in a network enables these agents to coordinate innovative efforts, as well as to pool and jointly create knowledge.