Innovation education programs: a review of definitions, pedagogy, frameworks and evaluation measures

Abstract

Purpose

The capability to create and manage innovations is recognized as an important skill not only for entrepreneurial activities but also for the survival of organizations. The last few decades have seen a noticeable growth in innovation education programs across the world. Innovation education is on the cusp of moving from being an optional subject to becoming a part of the core curricula. Given these recent developments, it is timely to review scholarship on innovation education carried out to date. The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the literature on innovation education programs.

Design/methodology/approach

This article employs a systematic and reproducible thematic analysis of the literature.

Findings

The review finds innovation education to be an emerging field with multiple concepts and frameworks in need of consolidation. Additionally, there is a marked dominance of this subject in traditional domains such as engineering, business, medicine and little or no presence in nontraditional domains such as humanities or social sciences. Challenges remain in the field for the development of standardized effectiveness measurement techniques.

Originality/value

This article puts forward a case for considering scholarship on innovation education as a unique field on its own and examines previous work in this domain to understand the emerging frameworks, pedagogy, evaluations and definitions. By doing so, the article aims to offer guidance for the adoption of innovation education, as well as creating a foundation for further research in this area by highlighting the gaps in the existing literature.

Citation

Chandra, P., Tomitsch, M. and Large, M. (2021), "Innovation education programs: a review of definitions, pedagogy, frameworks and evaluation measures", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 1268-1291. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-02-2020-0043