The future center as an urban innovation engine

Ron Dvir, Yael Schwartzberg, Haya Avni, Carol Webb, Fiona Lettice, Francisco Jaview Carrillo
2006 Journal of Knowledge Management  
Purpose -The purpose of this article is to describe a future center as an urban innovation engine for the knowledge city, to understand the success factors of a future center and how this success can be replicated systematically in the implementation and development of future centers in the future. Design/methodology/approach -Nine future centers were visited and a longitudinal action research-based case study was conducted at the regional Be'er Sheva PISGA Future Center in Israel, within the
more » ... ucational domain. Findings -There are 13 conceptual building-blocks for a future center and the unifying principle is conversations. The PISGA future center put the concept of a future center into action and was guided by six operating principles: values, experiment and learning, organizational structure, partnerships, physical space, and virtual space. They were able to initiate ten new educational projects within the first two years of operation. A conceptual model of a regional future center was developed and tested on the PISGA case, defining the five key ingredients as community conversations, future images, an innovation lab, a knowledge and intelligence center and implementation projects. Research limitations/implications -After two years of testing the findings, only intermediate results are available. Further research is needed to develop and test the concepts and model further. Practical implications -This paper provides building-blocks and a generic model that can be used by the creators of next generation future centers. Originality/value -This paper provides the first generic building-blocks and the first generic implementation and operational model for a future center. An "urban innovation engine" is a term used to describe a system which can trigger, generate, foster, and catalyze innovation in a city. Typically, it can be used to explain a co-evolving complex system that includes the interactions between people, relationships, values, processes, tools, technology, physical and financial infrastructures (Dvir, 2003) , from which emerges novelty, spontaneity, and creativity. This paper puts forward the argument that properly designed and operated, various types of urban institutions, such as the city library, the regional museum, the town hall, the stock exchange, the central piazza, educational institutions and even the local neighborhood café can be transformed into active and vibrant innovation engines that impact their environment, engaging citizens and other stakeholders in educational, cultural and economic innovation activities (Dvir and Pasher, 2004) . It is here proposed that urban institutions can also be transformed into a particular type of innovation engine, namely a future center. To elaborate the conceptualization of the future center and the significant factors which are required for successful implementation of
doi:10.1108/13673270610691224 fatcat:3sxybz6qmrddffkpwgrdxacmhm