New Perspectives in Science Education

A knowledge gap in the literature is the potential benefit for both students and business by utilizing user-lead innovation concept in educational process. The report aims at presenting an approach for improving business innovation learning and in the same time involving students’ efforts and innovativeness for business purposes directly into innovation development. The approach benefits all the stakeholders in the process of employing students as user-lead innovators in business innovation projects: students (by combining theory and practice in innovation management), business (by utilizing the fresh mindset of students and new ideas on lower price) and potential customers (by introducing innovative products). The synergetic triangle is analyzed and a conceptual work is developed so to propose an approach for boosting and improve innovation performance, innovation learning and business efficiency through user-lead innovation incorporated in the process of learning on innovation management. The conceptual work has been tested through qualitative methods in two separate aspects. The first aspect explores the benefits for a business organization by employing students as user-lead innovators (two groups of user-lead innovators enter in the research: students and ordinary users). The second aspect explores the advantages for learning and educational process of involving students as user-lead innovators within the business (by testing innovation management knowledge of two groups of students: those involved in innovation development as user-lead innovators and class only students).

Keywords: Innovation learning, Education on innovation, Business innovation, Innovation management, User-lead innovation;