Innovating with users online? How network-characteristics affect collaboration for innovation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/jmi.v3i1.2709Keywords:
Open innovation, crowdsourcing, co-creation, user-involvement, networksAbstract
This paper addresses how network characteristics affect collaboration in open innovation applications. Combining insights from open innovation and networked innovation, this paper applies an analytical framework addressing the innovation process from ideation to potential innovation, with a focus on relationships between involved parties and types of collective action. The analysis is based on the use of an open innovation application in three organizations: a hospital, an IT-company and three municipalities. Findings suggest that open innovation applications for gathering ideas facilitate a cross-cutting of vertical/hierarchical and horizontal/domain boundaries yet do little to alleviate challenges with innovation-management and cross-domain communication. Innovation-work beyond ideation, proceeding from an idea to an implemented innovation, is an example of high level collaboration, requiring high levels of commitment, reciprocal trust, common purpose, mutual benefits and risks. The ideation-phase and the later phases of the innovation-process hence benefit from different constellations of networks.
References
Bason, C. (2010). Leading public sector innovation: co-creating for a better society. Bristol, UK; Portland, OR, Policy Press.
Brabham, D. C. (2008). Crowdsourcing as a model for problem solving an introduction and cases, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 14 (1), 75-90.
Brabham, D. C. (2010). Moving the crowd at Threadless, Information, Communication & Society, 13(8), 1122-1145. doi: 10.1080/13691181003624090.
Breunig, K. J., Aas, T. H. & Hydle, K. M. (2014). Incentives and performance measures for open innovation practices, Measuring Business Excellence, 18(1), 45-54. doi 10.1108/MBE-10-2013-0049
Burt, R. S. (2004). Structural holes and good ideas, American Journal of Sociology, 110(2), 349-399. doi:10.1086/421787.
Chesbrough, H. (2003). Open Innovation: the New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology, Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press.
Chesbrough, H. (2006). Open Business Models: How to Thrive in the New Innovation Landscape, Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press.
Di Gangi, P. M., & Wasko, M. (2009). Steal my idea! Organizational adoption of user innovations from a user innovation community: A case study of Dell IdeaStorm, Decision Support Systems, 48(1), 303-312. doi:10.1016/j.dss.2009.04.004
Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). Building Theories from Case Study Research, The Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 532-550. doi: 10.2307/258557
Foss, N. J., Laursen, K. & Pedersen, T. (2011). Linking Customer Interaction and Innovation: The Mediating Role of New Organizational Practices, Organization Scinence, 22(2), 980-999. doi: 10.1287/orsc.1100.0584
Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties, The American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380. doi:10.1086/225469.
Gulati, R. (1998). Alliances and Networks, Strategic Management Journal, 19(4), 293-317.
Hrastinski, S., Kviselius, N. Z., Ozan, H., & Edenius, M. (2010). A Review of Technologies for Open Innovation: Characteristics and Future Trends, Paper presented at the System Sciences (HICSS), 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 5-8 January.
Hopkins, M. M., Tidd, J., Nightingale, P. & Miller, R. (2011). Generative and degenerative interactions: positive and negative dynamics of open, user-centric innovation in technology and engineering consultancies, R&D Management, 41(1), 44-60. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9310.2010.00631.x
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53, 59-68.
Mahr, D., & Lievens, A. (2012). Virtual lead user communities: Drivers of knowledge creation for innovation, Research Policy, 41(1), 167-177. doi: 10.1016/j.respol.2011.08.006.
Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H. & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust. The Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 709-734.
Mergel, I. & Desouza, K. C. (2013). Implementing Open Innovation in the Public Sector: the Case of Challenge.gov, Public Administration Review, 73(6), 882-890. doi: 10.1111/puar.12141.
Möller, K. & Rajala, A. (2007). Rise of strategic nets — New modes of value creation, Industrial Marketing Management, 36(7), 895-908. doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2007.05.016.
Mørk, B. E., Hoholm, T., Maaninen-Olsson, E., & Aanestad, M. (2012). Changing practice through boundary organizing: A case from medical R&D, Human Relations, 65(2), 263-288. doi: 10.1177/0018726711429192.
Putman, V. L., & Paulus, P. B. (2009). Brainstorming, Brainstorming Rules and Decision Making, The Journal of Creative Behavior, 43(1), 29-40. doi: 10.1002/j.2162-6057.2009.tb01304.x.
Ramaswamy, V., & Gouillart, F. (2010). Building the co-creative enterprise, Harvard Business Review, 88(10), 100-109.
Rheingold, H. (2012). Net smart: How to thrive online, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
Sanders, E. B. N., & Stappers, P. J. (2008). Co-creation and the new landscape of design, CoDesign, 4(1), no. 5-18. doi: 10.1080/15710880701875068
Sieg, J. H., Wallin, M. W., & von Krogh, G. (2010). Managerial challenges in open innovation: a study of innvation intermediation in the chemical industry, R&D Management, 40(3), 281-291. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9310.2010.00596.x
Sigala, M. (2012). Social networks and customer involvement in new service development (NSD): The case of www.mystarbucksidea.com, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 24(7), 966-990. doi: 10.1108/09596111211258874
Tiwana, A. (2008). Do bridging ties complement strong ties? An empirical examination of alliance ambidexterity, Strategic Management Journal, 29(3), 251-272. doi: 10.1002/smj.666
Trott, P. & Hartmann, D. (2009). Why "Open Innovatoin" is Old Wine in New Bottles, International Journal of Innovation Management, 13(4), 715-736. doi:10.1142/S1363919609002509.
Tushman, M. L. (1977). Special Boundary Roles in the Innovation Process, Administrative Science Quarterly, 22(4), 587-605. doi:10.2307/2392402.
Valkokari, K., Paasi, J. & Rantala, T. (2012). Managing knowledge within networked innovation, Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 10, 27-40. doi:10.1057/kmrp.2011.39.
Wang, H.-C., Cosley, D., & Fussell, S. R. (2010). Idea expander: supporting group brainstorming with conversationally triggered visual thinking stimuli, Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work.
West, J. & Bogers. M. (2014). Leveraging External Sources of Innovation: A Review of Research on Open Innovation, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31(4), 814-831. doi: 10.1111/jpim.12125
Westergren, U. H. & Holmström, J. (2012). Exploring preconditions for open innovation: Value networks in industrial firms, Information and Organization, 22(4), 209-226. doi:10.1016/j.infoandorg.2012.05.001.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
