TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose–The purpose of this article is to describe a future center as an urban innovation engine for the knowledge city, to understand the success factors of a future center and how this success can be replicated systematically in the implementation and development of future centers in the future.Design/methodology/approach–Nine future centers were visited and a longitudinal action research‐based case study was conducted at the regional Be'er Sheva PISGA Future Center in Israel, within the educational domain.Findings–There are 13 conceptual building‐blocks for a future center and the unifying principle is conversations. The PISGA future center put the concept of a future center into action and was guided by six operating principles: values, experiment and learning, organizational structure, partnerships, physical space, and virtual space. They were able to initiate ten new educational projects within the first two years of operation. A conceptual model of a regional future center was developed and tested on the PISGA case, defining the five key ingredients as community conversations, future images, an innovation lab, a knowledge and intelligence center and implementation projects.Research limitations/implications–After two years of testing the findings, only intermediate results are available. Further research is needed to develop and test the concepts and model further.Practical implications–This paper provides building‐blocks and a generic model that can be used by the creators of next generation future centers.Originality/value–This paper provides the first generic building‐blocks and the first generic implementation and operational model for a future center.
VL  - 10
IS  - 5
SN  - 1367-3270
DO  - 10.1108/13673270610691224
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270610691224
AU  - Dvir Ron
AU  - Schwartzberg Yael
AU  - Avni Haya
AU  - Webb Carol
AU  - Lettice Fiona
ED  - Francisco Jaview Carrillo
PY  - 2006
Y1  - 2006/01/01
TI  - The future center as an urban innovation engine
T2  - Journal of Knowledge Management
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 110
EP  - 123
Y2  - 2024/04/25
ER  -