Innovation analysis and game theory: A review

In this paper we review game theory and innovation related papers published in the period of 1985–2010. We divide our review into three levels of innovation games: 1) intra-organizational games, which are played within the firm and main players are an innovator, a project manager and/or resource administrator; 2) inter-organizational games, where main players are a firm and its competitors, partners and customers; 3) meta-organizational games, where main players are a social planner and an innovative entrepreneur. Compared with the previous periods, one can observe a significant increase in the number of papers which use game theory models to analyze the innovation processes. Moreover, there is a tendency to move from abstract and formal models towards practically applicable and empirically tested studies.