The Center for Business Innovation (CBI) was launched in 2007 as a research center in the field of management of innovation. The focus of the research is on business innovation, including not only new technology and product development but also development of business offerings and new value creation. The first phase of CBI lasted from 2007 to 2009.

CBI is a research center and a platform for learning. Its overall research focus consists of innovation activities and their development in companies. By concentrating on innovation as something much more than technology, CBI wants to contribute to greater understanding of innovation both in the research community and among companies – the emphasis is on business innovation. CBI’s research approach is interactive and action-oriented with a point of departure in companies’ real challenges for innovation. In addition, CBI as a center wants to be an arena for learning where our own and others’ research is shared and diffused, and where meetings occur between actors in research. The general purpose of CBI is to be a research center conducting interactive investigations and at the same time promoting business development in companies. The center has two main tasks: (1) to carry out research that results in actionable knowledge, i.e. knowledge that is directly useful for the companies and organizations which participate in our research projects; and (2) to serve as an arena for knowledge-sharing and as a platform for exchanging and improving business-related knowledge, contributing new ideas and enabling the creation of new projects through collaboration between academia and industry.

The center works both with large established firms and their innovation challenges and with small firms to accelerate their business growth. We invite companies to engage in long-term research collaborations and we offer business innovation projects and innovation audits. The center is also an arena for knowledge exchange providing seminars and workshops – a platform for learning.

The CBI faculty consists of innovation management researchers, senior as well as PhD candidates, employed at Chalmers University of Technology. The faculty has a distinguished track record of supporting firms in turning opportunities into real new businesses, and has extensive experience of company-close empirical research