The Emergence of Innovation Intermediaries

Innovation intermediaries play a crucial role in stimulating firms’ innovation, mainly by acting as a bridge between firms and resources that the firms would not otherwise have access to. However, little is known about where the intermediaries come from, how their role evolve over time, and how they shape their specific function as innovation catalysts, all of which are important elements of understanding the roles of innovation intermediaries. This study focuses on the emergence of innovation intermediaries in order to provide a richer explanation of their emergence, roles and performance. Through case studies of three innovation intermediaries with different origins in Australian advanced manufacturing from 2012 to 2019, this study highlights the viewpoint that intermediaries should be treated as endogenous actors of an industry, which has been largely disregarded by prior research that has examined intermediaries only after their inception.