Crisis-driven innovation and fundamental human needs: A typological framework of rapid-response COVID-19 innovations.

As a microcosm for future challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic exhibits increasingly transboundary dynamics, causing interconnected problems across multiple societal systems. To examine the role of innovations as a social mechanism to reconcile these arising challenges, we view the unfolding of the pandemic through the lens of a content analysis of 707 innovation projects that address the fundamental human needs of consumers and businesses. This study proposes a novel procedure to characterize large-scale innovative activities via text mining and employs a theoretical framework for identifying the pressing societal needs amidst crises.