About the Heuristics Lab

The Focus of the Lab
The Heuristics Lab investigates how innovation emerges in resource-constrained environments through heuristic strategies: intuitive, experience-based methods that innovators apply under conditions of limited time, resources, or information.

Traditional innovation theories often focus on large companies and multinationals, while the drivers of innovation in small enterprises remain insufficiently understood. Conventional models widely used in innovation and entrepreneurial settings are of limited applicability in this context.

Theories such as frugal innovation, grassroots innovation, and informal innovation systems provide valuable insights for resource-constrained settings. However, there is still no fully integrated model that systematically describes how heuristic strategies drive innovation in small enterprises.

Innovation in Practice
Formal innovation structures typically operate through procedures and policies that are rational and controllable. Although many models exist to stimulate and scale innovation, they often do not align with the realities of small enterprises and individual innovators.

In practice, small businesses frequently combine heuristic, intuitive decision-making with simple routines or informal rules, creating a hybrid innovation process.

Our hypothesis is that innovation in small enterprises, particularly within the informal sector, often arises through intuition, rapid decision-making, reactive strategies during crises, and ad-hoc opportunities that emerge in society.

The Research Agenda
Innovation is not shaped internally alone, but also influenced by regional and industrial ecosystems, suppliers, customers, and knowledge partners.

The Lab therefore investigates the heuristic and context-specific ways in which small enterprises and individual innovators innovate in practice, and how these processes can be effectively supported.

The academic coordinators and leads of the Lab are Prof. Cees van Beers and Prof. Saradindu Bhaduri, who together guide its scientific and societal agenda.