Exploring the business model of innovation spaces: an international analysis of environments for creativity, innovation and development

A variety of physical spaces exist to foster creative activities as wellas the development of innovations by offering solutions to complexproblems: Social Labs, Makerspaces, Hackerspaces, Idea Labs,among others. Despite their growing relevance in the innovationecosystem, it is difficult to differentiate their business model andvalue proposition. This paper addresses this difficulty byexploring the elements that characterize the business modeldomains of innovation spaces. Through qualitative web contentanalysis, we studied 87 spaces located in eleven countries, with afocus on Colombia. We found that the value proposition amongthese spaces can be focused on: education, prototyping andexperimentation, solving social problems, and fosteringentrepreneurship and innovation. This study expands ourunderstanding of innovation spaces, value proposition,communication channels and revenue streams. Moreover, ittheorizes about the relationships and dynamics betweeninnovation spaces, co-creation, and value proposition through aframework developed inductivel.