innovationsstrider

Innovationsstrider is a term used in some innovation studies to describe actors or practices that actively seek, adapt, and diffuse novel solutions across organizational and sector boundaries. An innovationsstrider combines exploratory search with implementation discipline, moving ideas from discovery to practice through iterative cycles.

Origin and usage: The term is a relatively recent neologism found in a subset of scholarly and practitioner discourse. It is not yet standardized, and its precise definition varies by author and context.

Characteristics: Innovationsstriders typically operate across silos, maintain diverse networks across academia, industry, and government, and employ rapid prototyping and experimentation. They emphasize learning by doing, stakeholder co-creation, and scalable pilots, mapping adoption barriers and orchestrating resources to advance ideas.

Roles and applications: They appear as intrapreneurs within firms, lead cross-disciplinary venture teams, or function in policy labs and regional innovation ecosystems. The concept helps describe strategies that blend open innovation, knowledge transfer, and ecosystem development.

Benefits and criticisms: Proponents say innovationsstriders accelerate diffusion, reduce time-to-value, and bridge research and practice. Critics argue the term can be vague, hard to measure, and may obscure power dynamics or unequal access to resources.

See also: Open innovation, intrapreneurship, design thinking, knowledge transfer, ecosystem development.