In 2011, NHH was the first and only business school to be granted status as a Center for Research-Driven Innovation (SFI) by the Research Council of Norway. The theme was service innovations and the center was called the Center for Service Innovation (CSI). In accordance with the contract with and funding from NFR, CSI came to an end in 2019. In an NFR evaluation of leading research environments in Norway, CSI was assessed as Excellent - the highest assessment.

In 2016, CSI’s board asked the administration to explore the partners' willingness to continue CSI-research addressing new research topics and research questions. CSI joined forces with two other leading research centers, FOCUS and STOP, at the Department for Strategy and Management (SOL) and gave birth to a new national research center: Digital Innovations for sustainable Growth - DIG.

DIG’s value proposition is:

«DIG is a national research center at NHH which through interdisciplinary research on and with partners will help Norwegian organizations increase the effectiveness of their customer-oriented innovations, develop new business models, and adapt the organizations to a digital everyday life. The goal is to ensure high employment and financing of the welfare state ».

The research center Digital Innovation for sustainable Growth (DIG) and The Digital Transformation HUB@NHH (The HUB@NHH) will be the natural "go-to-places" for leaders who are interested in research-based knowledge pertaining to digital value creation, innovation, and transformation. Jointly, we do research, networking, and dissemination.

The goal is to challenge traditional thinking and develop new knowledge and disseminate it effectively and efficiently. We do not engage in implementation.

DIG is the theory developer, and The HUB is the dissemination arena organized through our own and/or others' events. "Others" are actors to whom we feel close. AFF, NHH Executive, Bekk, The Open Innovation Lab of Norway, and Digital Norway are examples.

While the DIG-center is for partners and selective, The HUB is for members and unlimited in number. Partners are part of our ongoing research - which means that we are in close collaboration and interaction.

Together with AFF & NHHE we will lecture and develop DIG-related courses. Together with Open Innovation Lab and Digital Norway, we want our research to benefit their members, clients, etc. - not necessarily delivered by DIG researchers. Bekk is a DIG-partner and offers consulting services on implementing the Norwegian Innovation Index for higher return.