The fireworks model is an analytical generalization of the so-called Minnesota Studies, whose authors have observed innovation processes in different organizational contexts. It describes recurring patterns in the distinguished phases of initialization, development, and implementation of innovations. The central hypothesis is that the patterns described occur regardless of the respective type of innovation or organizational context. The fireworks model differs from models that assume linear innovation processes by emphasizing the nonlinear and cyclical characteristics of the patterns observed. Critical sociological engagements with the fireworks model further emphasize the social construction and contextual embedding of technological development. Although references to the fireworks model were primarily associative in character, its nonlinear and open-ended conception of innovation influenced scholars with regard to approaches such as the social shaping of technology or the biographical nature of artifacts that trace how innovations evolve across networks, contexts, and extended time scales, leading to concepts that either highlight “innovation journeys in context,” or promote going “beyond the innovation journey.”