Innovation and Technology Management Conference

InnoTech 2026

Innovation and Technology Management Conference

22-24 May 2026 | Renaissance Beijing Haidian Hotel, Beijing, China

Join us for InnoTech 2026

InnoTech 2026: Innovation and Technology Management Conference, under the theme ‘Managing Innovation and Technology in the Digital and Intelligent Age’, is a premier event bringing together the global research community to advance understanding in innovation and technology management.

About

In an era defined by accelerating digital transformation and deepening geopolitical uncertainty, innovation and technology management are undergoing profound reconfiguration.

InnoTech 2026: Innovation and Technology Management Conference, under the theme ‘Managing Innovation and Technology in the Digital and Intelligent Age’, will bring together leading scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to explore how innovation systems, organizational strategies, and technology governance are being reshaped by these dual forces.

As digital platforms, AI, and sustainable technologies disrupt established industrial and institutional logics, managers and researchers alike are confronted with the question of how to build innovation capabilities and ecosystems that are both agile and resilient in a fragmented global order.

This first edition of InnoTech offers a platform for critical dialogue across disciplines, sectors, and continents. With strong participation from Elsevier’s leading journals in innovation and technology studies, InnoTech 2026 will feature a rich program including:

Keynote addresses by internationally recognized scholars and thought leaders.
Academic sessions showcasing cutting-edge theoretical and empirical research.
Interactive “Meet the Editor” sessions and “How to Get Published” panels which will support both early-career and established researchers in navigating the scholarly publication landscape.

With these initiatives, InnoTech 2026 aims to foster dialogue, collaboration, and visibility across disciplines and regions, making it a vibrant gathering at the intersection of innovation, technology, and societal transformation.

Conference topics

Abstracts are invited on the following topics and should be submitted using the online abstract submission system.

1. AI in Innovation: Augmentation, Automation, and Ethics

Engaging with how artificial intelligence is changing R&D, design, forecasting, and innovation decision-making—and raising new ethical and governance issues.

2. The Platformization of Industry: Ecosystem Strategy and Value Reconfiguration

Understanding how digital platforms orchestrate ecosystems, reshape industries, and create new power structures in the global economy.

3. Open Innovation in the Post-Platform Era

Investigating the evolving logic of open innovation in complex multi-actor settings, including platform ecosystems, regional clusters, and public-private partnerships.

4. User-Driven and Community Innovation in Digitally Mediated Contexts

Exploring grassroots innovation, citizen science, maker movements, and online communities as sources of technological and social innovation.

5. Mission-Oriented Innovation and Societal Challenges

Analyzing how innovation systems are being reoriented toward grand challenges—climate, health, mobility—through public missions, partnerships, and policy instruments.

6. Strategic Foresight and Technological Forecasting in Innovation Management

Deep-diving into methods and applications of foresight, Delphi studies, roadmapping, and horizon scanning across sectors.

7. Dynamic Capabilities and Innovation Capture in Global Firms

Understanding how multinationals manage R&D and innovation investment amid turbulence, including geopolitical stress.

8. Sustainable Futures: Innovation for Environmental and Social Resilience

Examining the interplay between technological innovation, environmental transitions, and inclusive development at the firm, ecosystem, and policy levels.

9. Reinventing Industrial Policy for the Digital Age

Critically evaluating how governments and supra-national bodies shape innovation trajectories through strategic investments, regulation, and ecosystem building.

10. Global South Innovation Pathways and Alternative Models of Development

Investigating innovation trajectories and ecosystem models emerging from the Global South, especially amid shifting global power dynamics.

11. Quantitative Technology Forecasting and Scouting Mechanics

How firms deploy data driven scouting, text mining and extrapolation models to detect emerging industrial technologies and guide R&D investment strategies.

12. Cyber physical Systems & Smart Manufacturing Management

Study of managing IoT enabled manufacturing systems, digital twins, and smart factory operations to optimize technical performance and production agility.

13. Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty in Engineering Projects

Application of robust scenario planning and adaptive frameworks (DMDU) to manage engineering and technology investments amid highly uncertain futures.

14. Supply Chain Digital Technologies and Innovation Capability

Exploration of how digital tools (e.g. blockchain, analytics, automation) enhance innovation capability within supply chain engineering and operations