Innovation intermediaries and emerging digital technologies

Digital technologies have brought about fundamental changes to innovation intermediaries’ business models, and the ways in which they facilitate innovation and the adoption of these technologies. Digital technologies have also stimulated the emergence of non-human intermediaries such as crowdsourcing platforms. Yet knowledge is lacking on how intermediaries and intermediation are changing under the influence of digital technologies. The special issue on Innovation intermediaries and emerging digital technologies was designed to contribute to filling this gap. In this editorial, we reflect on these major developments and introduce the articles published in this special issue, which advance knowledge on how intermediaries contribute to the adoption of digital technologies, how they respond to technological change, and how they support intermediation for innovation. Building on the insights from this special issue, we suggest several avenues for future research.