Shaping and Accelerating Networked Innovation: Evidence from Research Collaboration Between a Manufacturing USA Institute and its Ecosystem Members

Abstract

Enhancing the competitiveness of U.S. firms requires continuous innovation that successfully diffuses to the national industrial base and meets its current needs while unlocking the products and processes of the future. The national Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MIIs) offer a potential model for coordination and diffusion of innovative effort through a network of member organizations that compete and partner for funding and development opportunities. In this report, we conduct a case study of the ARM Institute, an organization created to support and expand US manufacturing through the use of robotics and advanced manufacturing technologies. The ARM Institute is part of the Manufacturing USA® Network. Each institute serves a specific technological concentration (e.g. robotics, or integrated photonics) with the collective goal of accelerating U.S. advanced manufacturing. 

Through a range of programs, the ARM Institute actively contributes to the creation of a robotics innovation ecosystem. These programs are designed primarily to mature robotics-based manufacturing technologies, yet they also foster collaboration and provide funding opportunities, facilitate knowledge sharing, and nurture workforce development. To uncover the impact of the ARM Institute on technological advancement and the push towards application and commercialization, we study the incentives and potential behavioral changes of participant firms. We find that there are three key levers that the ARM Institute uses to support and affect its innovation ecosystem: acceleration, coordination, and steering. Within these categories, there are a variety of tensions that the ARM Institute must navigate such as the tradeoff of CDIP structure and value to firms, compared to the limitations it puts on firms to participate, or that of steering technology direction acutely through market signaling vs broadening the scope or base of project calls.

Keywords: Robotics, Manufacturing, Innovation, Research Collaboration, Innovation Ecosystem, Manufacturing USA, Ecosystem Management