Research
Our research approach is structured by the following four observations from the literature on innovation, social networks, space syntax, and workplace design.
The first observation is that innovation is mostly a recombinant process. That is, the innovative firm creates new products by recombining existing ideas to address new problems in different settings.
The second observation is that social networks play important roles in structuring communication, collaboration, access to knowledge, and knowledge transformation. These processes are both antecedent to and part of the innovation process.
The third observation is that, like other social processes, innovation happens in space and at different scales, from the urban setting to the organization's workplace. Spatial layout structures patterns of circulation, proximity, awareness of others, and encounter in an organization. These interrelationships become fundamental to the development of social networks, especially those networks critical to the innovation process.
The fourth observation is that information technology has dramatically changed organizational work processes both in terms of communication and also in terms of how work itself is perceived. Information technology not only affects organizational work processes and tasks, but it also can be used to mediate aspects of social networks and spatial layouts within organizations (such as social and spatial distance).