Innovation Practices: Co-creation in Tech Sectors in North American Cities

The process of technology design and innovation directly shapes society and who benefits or is burdened by said technology. This project is a descriptive and explanatory research undertaking aiming to understand innovation practices in specific tech sectors-space sector, robotics, and urban energy-in two North American metropolitan areas: Greater Boston and the Detroit Metro. This study analyzes co-creation facilities and living labs in these technical and geographic domains and aims to understand what innovation practices these organizations are using, why they are using these practices, what their standards of success are, and why. The role of cultural embeddedness, geographical embeddedness, and technological embeddedness is examined in this project as well as that of inclusive innovation as a concept and practice. In order to address these research aims, a mixed methods approach is used for data collection-including stakeholder interviews, site visits, and technical analysis. Data is analyzed using a systems architecture and enterprise architecture framework. This paper focuses on the space sector in Greater Boston, both in comparison to other previously analyzed sectors in the region-robotics, urban energy, and biotechnology, and in reference to other important space innovation hubs in the United States. In particular, we focus on a comparison of innovation objectives and stakeholders, and how this informs the types of innovation practices used in these regions.