ABSTRACT
By highlighting some insights about what works well and what tends to be problematic, it is possible to identify effective strategies and potential hazards, and this is relevant to the enactment of similar policy initiatives elsewhere. My international comparisons of ‘innovation by partnerships’ emphasized the impact of the scale and scope of the ‘object of activity’ and the significance of different contexts. These cases showed that ‘complexity’ is a huge obstacle to innovation partnerships. Google is hugely successful and almost synonymous with the term ‘innovation’. The method of encouraging self-organizing teams to pursue ideas, which are peer reviewed via their ORKUT ‘social networking software’ (also developed by colleagues), is really easy to facilitate. It simply requires managers to employ talented and creative people and stand back. The Nuno Corporation empowers designers to develop visual ideas, which may be selected for commercial development by the head designer. Collaboration with a textile manufacturing company or with a company from a different industrial sector is undertaken only if there is a clear aim. Boundary objects are used to bridge the gaps between imagined possibilities and practical outcomes, and relationships between the companies are carefully managed.
