CBI is a research center in the field of management of innovation aiming at producing actionable knowledge, i.e. knowledge that is useful and relevant for those concerned. Focus is on business innovation since innovation is much more than new technology and new products – it is also about new thinking in terms of the whole business offer and how to create new value for the paying customer. The center faculty is based at Chalmers, at the division on Innovation Management and led by a Center Director (Professor Sofia Börjesson). Aside research, the center provides innovation audits, business innovation projects and workshops & seminars. Here is an interview about CBI at Chalmers website (Swedish).
CBI aims at becoming a leading think tank and catalyst for business innovation through a learning partnership between people from industry, academia and government.
CBI’s research deals with the innovation processes and activities in companies. Our point of departure is the real problems encountered by firms: the practical relevance of our research is as central as academic motivation. We take a management perspective and mainly address questions of strategic significance. Our interactive, often action-oriented research means that practitioners are involved in the choice of focus and issues investigated, and knowledge is developed jointly. The development of actionable knowledge, i.e. knowledge that can be used directly in companies but at the same time contributes to advances in academic knowledge, is key to our approach. Typical themes are the ability to innovate, ways of organizing to promote innovation, how innovation can be measured, and contributing to development in companies. CBI’s research focus thus could be described as ‘innovation management’, i.e. research on innovation processes and activity and how they are led and organized.
