Media Lab: Infrastructure of Innovative Capacity

Abstract

This paper addresses the mechanisms behind the Media Lab innovation infrastructure that help promote technology transfer and innovations. The analyses are based on the integrative lens of the competitive diamond model and the triple helix model. The findings reveal that the “Demo-or-Die” culture, a free-ranging and interdisciplinary approach to research, has effectively linked the Media Lab science fiction to the process of technology transfer. The government should take a less controlling role to engender the process of “innovation to create demand” and thrive high-tech initiatives. The empirical results and lessons of MIT Media Lab provide a model of promoting proliferation of future technological innovations.