Deal-flow portfolios in innovation collaborations — Revisiting the rationale of innovation networks

Regional innovation systems straggle to live up to certainly exaggerated expectations despite high effort into facilitation of innovation network collaboration and cluster forming. As well, innovation performance remains difficult to measure. Facilitation is the aim of many institutions like technology transfer centres, living labs, incubators, or business idea competitions. In this paper we present a study of seven action research cases from which we argue that a result or "deal-flow" rationale of innovation networks mobilizes stronger engagement of stakeholders than the facilitation rationale. Innovation processes on network level then can be designed to co-ordinate seamless deal-flows. The practical contribution of the paper is that innovation intermediaries can derive a sustainable value position as innovation process managers. The paper revisits the concrete intermediary function of "match making" as innovation process design.