Anna Yström, Linköping University

Susanne Ollila, Chalmers University of Technology

Paul Carlile, Boston University

Deborah Roberts, University of York

This special issue examines spaces for innovation—such as living labs, maker spaces, and virtual environments—as crucial elements for stimulating innovation and enabling co-creation. While the role of physical spaces in fostering innovation has long been established, contemporary innovation involves multiple interrelated spatial modalities: physical, virtual, cognitive, and social. The special issue aims to advance interdisciplinary innovation management theory and practice by investigating how these diverse spaces are designed, experienced, and orchestrated to stimulate innovation.

The special issue addresses significant gaps in understanding how spatial configurations shape innovation in collaborative contexts. Key concerns include how different spatial modalities interact to drive innovation, the role of AI and technological systems in reshaping innovation spaces, the challenges of integrating knowledge across organizational and disciplinary boundaries, and how managers can orchestrate inclusive and ethical innovation environments. Additionally, the call seeks methodological advancements to capture the dynamic and evolving nature of spaces across their multiple dimensions.

Appel publié par Journal of Product Innovation Management. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Dynamics of Stimulating Innovation Across Spatial Modalities - how different modalities of space (physical, digital, cognitive, and social) stimulate innovation, both intentionally and serendipitously, and how these modalities interact over time
• AI-Augmented Spaces and Their Role in Stimulating Innovation - how AI-augmentation reshapes spaces for innovation and their management, including impacts on creativity, decision-making, collaboration, power relations, and ethical considerations
• Knowledge Integration and Boundary-Spanning in and across Spaces for Innovation - how spaces enable or constrain knowledge integration and boundary-spanning across organizational, disciplinary, and cultural divides
• Orchestrating Spaces for Innovation: Inclusion, Power, and Governance - how orchestration forms and practices shape spaces for innovation with attention to fairness, transparency, inclusion, and the dark sides of innovation spaces
• Methodological Advancements for Studying Spaces Across Modalities and Over Time - methodological approaches to capture the dynamic, multi-modal nature of spaces for innovation as they evolve, including mixed methods, ethnography, spatial and network analysis, and AI-driven tools

Timeline

• Invalid DateTime: Expected publication
• April 30, 2026: Proposal deadline for paper development workshop (optional)
• May 11, 2026: Decisions on proposal for paper development workshop
• June 8, 2026: Online information session with Q&A followed by paper development workshop (optional)
• September 30, 2026: Full paper submission window opens
• November 30, 2026: Full paper submission window closes
• February 28, 2027: First round decisions
• June 30, 2027: First round revision due
• November 30, 2027: Second round decisions
• February 28, 2028: Second revisions due
• June 30, 2028: Final editorial decisions

Associate editors

• Gerda Gemser, University of Melbourne