Connecting with and Supporting Grassroots Innovators - A Comparative Case Study

Sammanfattning: This paper examined how innovation hubs are identifying and connecting with grassroots innovators, and how they can support grassroots innovators. Grassroots innovators are typically entrepreneurs from poor communities. Supporting these innovators can increase sustainable development in poor communities, and how institutions can do this is under-researched. To answer the research questions literature on grassroots innovation, innovation hubs, and challenges faced by grassroots innovators was reviewed, and nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and innovators from two innovation hubs. Analysis of the transcripts demonstrated that innovation hubs’ roles and goals are important deciders on how they identify and select innovators. Furthermore, many important factors to consider when supporting innovators were found. It is concluded that innovation hubs that identify problems and drive innovations can use more active approaches to find innovators (e.g., innovation contests or the lead user method), while innovation hubs that are more passive and let innovators identify problems can use open calls for applications to their support programs. Furthermore, factors like funding, infrastructure, networks, training, and the structure of the program itself are important to consider when supporting innovators. And, if innovation hubs want to provide broader support to grassroots innovation, they should open their infrastructure and education programs to the public, allow any kind of project to join their support programs, provide support and infrastructure in rural areas, and create networks of entrepreneurs in grassroots communities.