Managing the system of connections to outperform: the Innovation-Hub

The paper affords the topic of innovation hub as an appropriate context to collect a huge amount of data at real-time, turning them into useful insights to be incorporated into core business processes. Much potential value lies in using IT platform and social technologies, which enhance communication, knowledge sharing and collaboration within and across enterprises. The research explores the importance of capturing value from connectivity through the listening and analyzing capabilities and proactivity; the need of unleashing the innovative potential of participants through appropriate corporate policies; and the necessity of managing the hub by substituting rules with shared values. As the innovation hub is increasingly used not only by companies but also by science parks, and local authorities to improve competitiveness, it can have different configurations. So, we center our comparative analysis on the main criteria that drive the innovation and give insights useful to design the hub’s structure.