Our History
From an international coalition back to its research origins
The Innovation Index Coalition grew from a simple premise: firm innovativeness should not only be assessed by what firms develop, but also by what customers notice, experience, and value.
What began as research on perceived firm innovativeness has developed into an international network of academic partners that measures and studies firm innovativeness from the customer perspective.
2026
An established international research network.
By 2026, the Innovation Index Coalition connects academic research partners across Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia.
The fifth IIC Summit in Madrid, joint conference sessions, publications, annual Innovation Index reports, and continued collaboration among the national research teams reflect a growing shared research agenda around firm innovativeness from the customer perspective.
2024
The Coalition broadens its international reach.
The fourth Innovation Index Coalition meeting is held in Madrid, bringing together researchers to develop joint research and strengthen collaboration across the national indexes.
In June 2024, VinUniversity joins the Coalition, extending the network further into Asia and strengthening its international reach.
2023
The Innovation Index Coalition is founded.
The Innovation Index Coalition (IIC) is formally established to strengthen collaboration among the research teams behind the national Innovation Index initiatives.
The Coalition creates a common platform for joint research, methodological development, knowledge exchange, and dissemination centered on firm innovativeness from the customer perspective.
2016-2023
The approach expands internationally.
The customer-based approach is adopted by research teams across several countries. Innovation indexes are developed in collaboration with universities in Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, and the United States.
Although adapted to their respective markets, the indexes share a common emphasis: customers are central to assessing whether firms are perceived as innovative.
This growing international network creates the foundation for closer research collaboration.
2016
The Norwegian Innovation Index is established.
The Norwegian Innovation Index (NII) is established at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) under the leadership of Tor W. Andreassen.
Built around customer assessments of firm innovativeness, the NII becomes the world's first customer-based ranking of innovative firms. The approach provides an outside-in complement to traditional innovation measures such as R&D expenditure, patents, and expert evaluations.
2006
The customer perspective takes shape.
Werner H. Kunz develops the Perceived Firm Innovativeness (PFI) scale, providing a systematic way to measure firm innovativeness from the customer perspective. This work establishes an important research foundation for the customer-based innovation indexes that follow.