Article: Innovation communities: the role of networks of promotors in Open Innovation. Klaus Fichter. R&D Management 39, 4, 2009.

The above is from the special issue of the academic journal R&D Management, dedicated to open innovation, which we mentioned before. Here’s another study that focuses on innovation leadership in open communities:

Klaus Fichter:

“Promotor theory is based on the notion that the success of innovation processes depends on overpowering certain barriers; it requires promotors who commit enthusiastically to specific innovation projects and help overcome those barriers.

Witte (1973, p. 15) defined promotors as ‘individuals who actively and intensively support the innovation process’. With regard to barriers, Witte (1977) differentiates between two kinds of specialisation, the ‘power promotor’ and the ‘expert promotor’, and assumes that there is a correspondence between specific barriers and specialised roles. The ‘power promotor’ contributes through hierarchical power and the ‘expert promotor’ contributes through expert knowledge (Witte, 1973, p. 17).

Another assumption of promotor theory is that the innovation process will be more successful if both types of specialised promotors work closely together (Hauschildt and Kirchmann, 1997, p. 68). Witte’s original two-centre theory of power and knowledge has been extended since its introduction in the 1970s. In the 1980s, Hauschildt and Chakrabarti (1988, 385f) described a third barrier that can hinder economic progress: administrative barriers. For this reason, they introduced the role of a ‘process promotor’, who actively arbitrates between the technical and the economic world by means of organisational knowledge (Hauschildt, 1999, p. 174). Gemu¨ nden and Walter (1995) developed a fourth type of specialised promotor: ‘relationship promotors’ actively encourage an innovation process by means of innovation-related business relationships inside and between the organisation and its external partners. The defining characteristic of relationship promotors is their extensive network competence, i.e. powerful relationships with other parties.

Promotor theory stresses that the different specialised promotor roles do not have to be played by different individuals, but can also be combined in one person, the ‘universal promotor’. Promotor theory offers a consistent and elaborate base for describing and explaining the role of transformational leaders in innovation processes; its conceptual focus on a single organisation is, however, too limited in scope (Fichter, 2005).

For this reason, the original theory has to be extended, by adding two new assumptions:

1. Cross boundary cooperation of promotors: In cases of Open Innovation and complex technologies, the innovation process will be successful if universal or specialised promotors from cooperating organisations work closely together.

2. Promotor roles on all levels of innovation systems: Promotor roles are not limited to those organisations involved in ‘producing’ the innovation, but can also be played by innovation intermediaries (Howells, 2006) or individuals from organisations of the superstructure of an innovation system (Lynn et al., 1996; Lynn, 1998).

The new construct of ‘innovation communities’ will draw on the concept of multi-level innovation systems, because it helps to clarify and structure cross boundary relationships and allows systematic connections to the research on the ‘superstructures’ of regional, national and international innovation systems (Lynn et al. 1996; Lynn, 1998).”