Institutional Innovation in University-based Experimental Spaces: the Case of Oulu Game Lab

This article explores preconditions and developmental dynamics of institutional innovation in higher education organizations as an outcome of a collaborative educational initiative – a university-based experimental space. Such collaborative learning configurations are often designed to stimulate local economic development after a downturn in regional industrial landscapes. The experimental space studied here had a twofold mission: providing re-skilling and re-education opportunities for unemployed ICT professionals and equipping them with business and employment bonds with regional game industry companies. To imbue a static outcome of institutional innovation with dynamic features, and to further develop the concept of Triple Helix spaces, we incorporated three sequential forms of institutional work in our analysis: boundary work, distancing work, and anchoring work.