Research Background
In the midst of the global economic crisis and the changing society, ‘innovation’ has become the key for corporate activities. It is essential for any company to obtain abilities to explore new opportunities and technologies, create new concepts and market with new business models in an agile manner to remain sustainable. Innovation will not occur with traditional business systems and workplaces that only focus on existing businesses. That is the context of why so many companies have been investing in creative/innovative spaces such as innovation centers, future centers, innovation labs, garages, and living labs, etc. to gain return from the Ba for innovation. Innovation center here means not just hardware like physical space, but it also includes a wide range of programs such as CVC and awards. Skills and tools such as Design Thinking and/or Lean Startup are also important factors.
One of the common challenges of these type of innovative space and programs is how to measure impact/results, which could be either tangible and intangible. According to some research, even though the number of innovation centers are growing rapidly worldwide, many of them do not produce satisfactory results. With these problem recognitions, we, FCAJ have suggested guidelines for strategizing, designing and operationalizing innovation centers as “Ba”. This research project aims to suggest a valid model and a hypothetical evaluation metrics for the relationship between innovation place and innovation management.
Research Scope
1.Consistency between the place of 2 innovation (Ba) and the corporate
strategy and organization: "Location
(role) of Ba"
The gap between expectations for and outcomes from innovation centers partly comes from lack of clear innovation strategies/policies and the ambiguity of the positioning of innovation centers. As the international standard of innovation management system (ISO 56002) was published in 2019, it should serve as a common language for innovation management. It is important to clearly define the position, scope and role of the innovation space.
2. The qualitative function and role of Innovation Center (Ba): "Power of Ba "
In terms of the role of the innovation center aligned with the company's strategy, how does the innovation center create the appropriate internal and external relationships and consisten- cy of policy and practice?
The following three points will assist in identi- fying the gap between the perception and the reality.
Relationship between the place and the organization
Capabilities and Assets of Ba
Relationship between Ba, external stakeholders and society
Evaluation Model for Innovation Centers
What do we do at innovation space? What should be done there? Innovation Center is not a mere facility for workshops, but a place for programs in practice that drive innovation = “Ba.” When innovation is not produced at Innovation Center, it is not because of lack of ideas, but it means it does not work as a system that consists of resources, passionate people, , culture, and tangible/ intangible incentives. This means that it is more important for program organizers to conduct a series of programs through connecting ideas inside and outside of the organization than to satisfy workshop participants and/or care about convenience of the space. The overall notion is showed in Figure 1.
The place of innovation, or “Ba” is also regarded important by ISO56002. Chapter 7.1.6.2, which is about infrastructure to support innovation, contains creative environments, research and development labs, maker spaces, simulation labs, and living labs(. Figure 2)It is recommended to set KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) by developing a hypothesis about how these place of innovation is related to and interacts with other factors of an innovation management system.
There are two factors that contribute to the success of innovation centers: hardware and software. Hard- ware, space design is effective in branding the centers and facilitating stakeholders’ behavior, but it is not sufficient condition to drive innovation. The more important factor is if the place functions as “Ba” to enable innovation. Place managers must ensure that the place aligns with the innovation strategy and remove any obstructive factors. They also must improve the level of place because, innovation is the activity of changing the future through overcoming the resistance and skepticism that block the way forward. Therefore, it is indispensable to look at if the company has established management objectives, strategies, capabilities, awareness of stakeholders, relationships with others and management indicators (KGIs and KPIs) appropriate for a place for intellectual combat.
EMIC Framework
As previously mentioned, innovation centers should be evaluated if it connects people and knowledge internally and externally, facilitates knowledge creation and exchange, and produce impacts vis a vis its objectives.
EMIC is an evaluation model developed to examine both hardware and software factors that are essential for innovation centers to function through verification of whether the objectives, strategies, and its implementation are aligned with the place = “Ba”. Nowadays, organizations from both public and private sectors show strong interest in Open Innovation 2.0. EMIC has also its bass on Open Innovation 2.0, which focuses on the interrelationship between “Ba” connecting inside the organization and outside the organization. The model consists of 12 elements, which builds an ecosystem as a whole.