The anatomy of innovation — what conditions, forces, and human factors make innovation happen, and what kills it.
This collection maps the landscape of innovation drivers — the conditions, environments, human factors, institutional structures, and historical forces that produce innovation.
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View a sample reportOne session. One clear takeaway.Each short session develops one distinct idea with a clear takeaway. Together, the sessions show how those ideas connect into a structured understanding of the topic.
What innovation actually is, why it matters, and why most people misunderstand where it comes from.
What innovation actually is, why it matters, and why most people misunderstand where it comes from.
The psychological and motivational conditions inside the innovator — curiosity, dissatisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and deep knowledge.
The psychological and motivational conditions inside the innovator — curiosity, dissatisfaction, intrinsic motivation, and deep knowledge.
Innovation as a social phenomenon — how ideas travel, combine, and improve through weak ties, diverse teams, and open boundaries.
Innovation as a social phenomenon — how ideas travel, combine, and improve through weak ties, diverse teams, and open boundaries.
The counterintuitive driver — how limitation, scarcity, time pressure, and crisis accelerate innovation.
The counterintuitive driver — how limitation, scarcity, time pressure, and crisis accelerate innovation.
The structural conditions — economic, legal, and institutional — that make innovation rewarding or futile.
The structural conditions — economic, legal, and institutional — that make innovation rewarding or futile.
The atmospheric conditions — psychological safety, failure tolerance, geographic clustering, and cultural attitudes that enable or suppress innovation.
The atmospheric conditions — psychological safety, failure tolerance, geographic clustering, and cultural attitudes that enable or suppress innovation.
How available tools define what innovations are possible — and how new tools expand the horizon.
How available tools define what innovations are possible — and how new tools expand the horizon.
The role of chance, serendipity, and timing — and what it means for understanding and practising innovation.
The role of chance, serendipity, and timing — and what it means for understanding and practising innovation.
“A rigorous map of why innovation happens — built from evidence, not inspiration posters.”
What Drives Innovation replaces the lone-genius narrative with a structured framework of identifiable conditions. Eight modules cover the full landscape — from individual psychology to institutional design to timing and luck — with named research, concrete mechanisms, and practical implications throughout.
The Innovation Pipeline curates foundational knowledge about how innovation works as a discipline — the conditions, forces, and human factors that make it happen. Each collection in the series builds one layer of the innovation landscape.