Innovation intermediation at the new product development level: a case study in the bio-industrial sectors

This study investigates the performance of new innovation intermediaries in an open innovation framework. One promising way to open up the innovation process is to interact with innovation intermediaries either to find new co-development partners or to promote new technologies. However, the extensive literature dealing with open innovation needs to be enriched by studies highlighting the role of new innovation intermediaries at the new product development (NPD) level. To do so, this paper presents a concrete technological case study to illustrate the mechanism of innovation intermediaries in promoting under-development technologies. A qualitative research approach was used to analyse the performance of classical innovation consulting approaches when compared with web-based intermediaries also known as 'markets for technology' or 'open innovation accelerators'. The findings give a better understanding of the intrinsic performance and the added value of new intermediaries in order to open up the innovation process in the bio-industrial sectors.