Norwegian Innovation Index Enters New Phase Through Cooperation with Open Innovation Lab of Norway

A new cooperation between NHH, DIG and Open Innovation Lab of Norway will strengthen the Norwegian Innovation Index and support the broader work of the Innovation Index Coalition to advance customer-based innovation measurement internationally.

The Norwegian Innovation Index has been developed at the Norwegian School of Economics since 2016 and is the original methodological foundation behind the Innovation Index Coalition. The index measures how customers perceive companies’ ability to innovate, placing the customer experience at the centre of innovation assessment.

Through the new cooperation, NHH and DIG will continue to provide the academic and methodological foundation for the index, while Open Innovation Lab of Norway will contribute closer links to the business community and access to an international innovation network.

The partnership marks a further step in the international development of the Norwegian Innovation Index. NHH has stated the ambition of making NII the world’s leading standard for measuring innovation capability from the customer’s perspective.

For the Innovation Index Coalition, the cooperation reinforces the role of the Norwegian Innovation Index as a central reference point in the coalition’s shared work. IIC brings together academic partners across countries to strengthen research, dissemination, networking and training around customer-driven, evidence-based and sustainable innovation.

The customer perspective is the defining feature of the Innovation Index approach. While many innovation rankings rely on patents, research funding, expert assessments or technology investments, the Norwegian Innovation Index asks customers directly how they experience companies’ innovation capability.

This outside-in perspective is especially relevant in consumer-facing industries such as banking, insurance, grocery retail, telecom, energy, transportation and digital services. In these sectors, innovation is not only evaluated by what companies develop internally, but by whether customers experience new solutions as useful, trustworthy and valuable.

The new cooperation is also intended to strengthen the link between research and practice. NHH and DIG bring research expertise, academic credibility and methodological rigour. Open Innovation Lab of Norway brings business engagement, innovation practice and international outreach.

Professor Emeritus Tor W. Andreassen, who has led the development of the Norwegian Innovation Index, will continue as academic lead for the work through Open Innovation Lab of Norway. Professor Bram Timmermans, Director of DIG, has highlighted the importance of building a stronger foundation for measuring innovation over time and comparing Norway with other countries.

The cooperation comes as the Innovation Index Coalition continues to expand the use of customer-based innovation indexes internationally. The NII methodology has already been adopted by research partners in several countries, creating opportunities for cross-country comparison and shared learning.

For companies, the index provides insight into whether innovation efforts are visible and meaningful to customers. For researchers, it offers a common framework for studying perceived innovativeness across markets. For policymakers, it contributes to a broader understanding of how innovation capability is experienced in the economy.

The partnership between NHH, DIG and Open Innovation Lab of Norway is therefore not only a Norwegian development. It is also a contribution to the Innovation Index Coalition’s international mission: amplifying the customer voice in innovation.

By strengthening the Norwegian Innovation Index, the cooperation supports the coalition’s wider effort to make innovation measurement more customer-driven, evidence-based and internationally comparable.