Innovation Communities: Trust, Mututal Learning and Action

This report describes and places in context the emergent phenomenon of Innovation Communities (InnoComms): Groups of people who meet regularly to learn from each other about the challenges of managing innovation and entrepreneurship and to build personal and professional networks of supportive colleagues from industries and cultures beyond those they ordinarily encounter. -It describes the basis and motivation for InnoComms and distinguishes them from networking organizations that focus on achieving specific business, macroeconomic or social results or on academic research. -It characterizes and provides twenty-seven case studies from ten countries, placing them in five categories that span business, government, academia and nonprofit sectors. -It analyzes how trust is built and maintained in an InnoComm and how online tools and social media can support InnoComm development (but cannot substitute for in-person meetings). -It explores how InnoComms may support regional development, such as the creation of “innovation hot spots,” and how the InnoComm phenomenon varies in different societies around the world.