Comparative Analysis of Digital Innovation Platforms in the Context of Collaboration between Academic and Private Environments

Digital innovation platforms are increasingly supporting organizational innovation processes and cooperation between companies and academia. Enterprise-oriented solutions and open and participatory platforms continue to differ considerably, despite the emphasis in the literature on their potential to integrate stakeholders, resources and information. Focusing on the interaction between academia and the private sector, this research analyzes the differences between digital innovation platforms in terms of functionality, governance and openness to collaboration between organizations. Six well-known digital innovation platforms were used for qualitative multi-criteria comparative analysis, using functional, technological and collaborative characteristics. The research analyzes theories on governance maturity, standards alignment and academic integration, in addition to research concerns on internal process orientation and external collaboration. The results show a clear difference between systems that emphasize accessibility and external involvement and those that focus more on structured internal innovation processes. Even though many platforms have complex technological capabilities, they are still underutilized to support long-term academic collaboration. In addition to highlighting the limitations of current platforms, this study proposes important design options for future digital solutions that can effectively support collaboration between academia and the private sector.