The Role of Boundary Institutions in Rwandan Innovation Hub Operations
Open Access
- Author:
- Obeysekare, Eric Ryan
- Graduate Program:
- Information Sciences and Technology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- November 12, 2018
- Committee Members:
- Carleen Maitland, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Carleen Frances Maitland, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
John Millar Carroll, Committee Member
Frederico T Fonseca, Committee Member
Janelle Beth Larson, Outside Member
Khanjan Mehta, Special Member - Keywords:
- Innovation
Innovation Hubs
Boundary Organizations
Rwanda
Boundary Institutions - Abstract:
- The desire to create jobs and drive economic growth has led governments around the world to invest in innovation and entrepreneurship. In the African context, innovation hubs have gained prominence, with over 170 of these organizations counted on the continent as of 2016. Innovation hubs are central to their local innovation ecosystems and provide services to entrepreneurs pursuing innovation in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) domain. These services include technical education, mentorship, networking services, workspace, electricity, and internet access. Without hubs, many entrepreneurs would struggle to pursue ICT-related opportunities. Rapid growth of these organizations has generated many questions for social informatics, innovation, and organization science researchers. Specifically, how do innovation hubs promote collaboration between the different groups of people required to successfully drive innovation? In this dissertation, we answer this question through a novel application of two existing social informatics theories: Boundary Organizations and Institutional Theory. Boundary Organizations theory builds upon the concept of Boundary Objects and considers organizations that sit between different social worlds. Based on a multiple case study of hubs in Kigali, Rwanda, we will consider innovation hubs as Boundary Organizations that enable interactions between entrepreneurs, investors, experts, and other individuals in the innovation ecosystem. To encourage these interactions, in theory, Boundary Organizations create and incentivize the use of Boundary Objects. However, we argue this does not accurately reflect all the actions and activities undertaken by innovation hubs. Integrating Institutional Theory lets us consider the institutions – sets of rules, norms, and culture – that these Boundary Organizations create. These institutions also enable and encourage interactions between social worlds. To better define these mechanisms, we introduce and define the concept of Boundary Institutions, the main contribution of this dissertation. The concept of Boundary Institutions is developed through case studies resulting from long-term fieldwork and qualitative data collection conducted in Kigali, Rwanda from February to October 2017. Data from interviews with 102 individuals and numerous observations of Kigali innovation hubs were analyzed to define the Boundary Institutions concept. These analyses also generated insights into how success is defined at innovation hubs and how individuals in the innovation ecosystem perceive and engage with innovation hubs. This research provides a bridge between Boundary Organizations and Institutional Theory that can be further tested in a variety of innovation ecosystems to further knowledge and understanding of their operations and contribution to economic development. It also generates insights for practitioners seeking to improve innovation ecosystem performance.