Innovation communication system

The Innovation Communication System is a subset of an innovation system, focusing on the flows of communication and attention within and around it. The streams of attention related to an innovation ecosystem affect the power structures, the decisions, the output, and the competitiveness of the system. The concept of Innovation Communication Systems was coined by David Nordfors in 2006.

Nordfors suggests that key actors in innovation communication systems are attention workers, actors who generate and broker attention professionally, such as journalism and public relations. The increase of innovation as a driver of economic growth is increasing the transformation of ideas into new value on the market. The competition between people pushing novelties is increasing, and with that comes increased competition for attention. The innovation economy is an attention economy. Attention work focussing on innovation, such as innovation journalism and innovation communication should be important in the innovation economy, in the wider context of related concepts, such as innovation systems and the attention economy

Luoma-aho, Uskali and Weinstein suggest that the innovation communication system is becoming increasingly more complex for its attention workers as innovation speeds up, readers' interests are changing and newsrooms are shrinking. This makes it difficult for PR professionals to keep up, and it means they are more likely to pitch journalists unwanted information. As attention decreases, focus is shifting from providing information to telling a story. The focus on stories gives more responsibility to PR, as companies are relying more upon their public relations teams to provide a roadmap for telling their stories. The way to exchange information in these new settings, however, is more demanding for both sides.

The topic of innovation communication systems is a fairly recent theme in research. It was selected as a theme within the IAMCR Conference 2010 in Portugal.