A Local Learning Market to Explore Innovation Platforms

This research investigates the design of a unique innovation platform to support entrepreneurial growth. The premise of the platform is that the needs of institutions can be coupled with supply from early-stage businesses to enable the learning and growth of those businesses. We assume that some institutions are in a position to be more helpful and understanding about the setbacks encountered by early-stage businesses, and that the institutions' skillset and tolerance offers entrepreneurs an environment to learn and grow their businesses. Many startups face competition from powerful multinational corporations that have the scale to reach consumers through inexpensive pricing, branding and reputation. The subset of startups with sustainability embedded into their ethos often has an even more difficult time competing with prices. This is especially apparent with food. Not all food is priced to accurately reflect its costs to society and the environment. For novice entrepreneurs, attempting to internalise some of these non-monetary costs may seem too great a risk. The proposed institution-based innovation platform might overcome some of these difficulties. To explore the possibilities of the platform, we combine literature review and case study analysis. While existing innovation platform cases in the literature have been studied in retrospect, we introduce a novel approach that sets out to follow the design of a food innovation platform, referred to as the Local Learning Market, from the earliest stages of planning. Our findings point to the potential risk, trust and learning advantages of this particular platform. Entrepreneurs are able to experiment and develop their value proposition in a safe space, find viable customers and identify market niches. Researching the Local Learning Market is a first step in understanding whether similarly modelled platforms can increase the likelihood of success for startups pursuing sustainable business models in other sectors.