Market-making and Innovation Support Organisations 

How can Innovation Support Organisations such as accelerators, incubators, catalysts and Research & Technology Organisations (RTOs) be more effective? This report argues that part of the answer is for ISOs to do more to support market innovation as well as technological innovation.

An all-too-prevalent view is that markets are simply collections of customers or potential customers, as in the notion of ‘target market’. The task of innovation support, on this view, is to help firms and other organisations to develop their technology to the point where it is ready to ‘launch’ at this (pre-existing) market.

Our view is different. Based on our Market Studies perspective, we see markets as the whole socio-technical construction that allows goods (products and services alike) to be defined, valued, compared and traded. One formal definition of markets is “socio-economic collectives that contest, calculate and co-ordinate action, organizing multiple social values to generate economic value” (Mason et al., 2019). Thus, markets comprise the physical and virtual platforms for exchange; standards and regulatory mechanisms; systems and actors who define, qualify, compare and value goods; mechanisms to enable payment to be made; repositories and holders of the scientific and technical knowledge that underpins these processes, and more besides.

We used this perspective to explore the actual and potential roles and functions of a variety of ISOs in the UK. We conducted over 30 interviews with ISO leaders, and ran two roundtable discussions with some of these leaders as well as other UK innovation system stakeholders. This report summarises our insights and recommendations concerning six aspects of market innovation:

• Defining the market object
• Market knowledge and skills
• Market infrastructure
• Policy and regulation
• Valuation
• Envisioning new or re-shaped markets

By more explicitly and systematically thinking about their roles and activities along these lines, we suggest, ISOs can be more effective in supporting successful innovation in the UK.

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