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Research Program

The research focus of the Institute is Open and User Innovation in general and recently collaborative communities as well as crowdsourcing in particular.

OI

Open and User Innovation - General

Even though open innovation as coined by Henry Chesbrough and user innovation as coined by Eric von Hippel differ in certain assumptions and research foci, both concepts share the understanding that there is a large amount of creativity outside the boundaries of focal firms that the latter can leverage by applying specific methods and that often users and producers are complements in the creation of innovation. In this respect, the institute has for example engaged in research about lead users, the technological impact of independent versus corporate inventors, or organization design- and business model aspects of open and user innovation.

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Collaborative Communities

Online Communities

Online user communities are internet-based platforms for communication and exchange among individuals and/or organizations interested in a given product or technology. They represent new forms of organizing for innovation. Research at the institute has been focusing on the overall organizational architecture of online communities compared to traditional forms of organizing, innovation processes in online communities, communities in multi-institutional development collaborations as well as how firms can leverage online communities for innovation. A recent project examines the introduction of symbolic awards on member behavior within online communities.

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CS

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is an open call to anyone to participate in the problem solving process of a focal actor. Crowdsourcing can take many different forms ranging from ‘small scale problem solving’ in ideation contests to so-​called grand challenges in which highly complex problems are being solved over very long time spans.Research of the institute has examined how crowdsourcing platforms can be used to forecast the attractiveness of user-generated designs as well as value creation and value capture aspects of crowdsourcing. Recent projects investigate the role of size for crowdsourcing success, the motivations of contributors in grand challenges, the role of crowding in idea selection processes, and the role of knowledge similarity on self-selection and evaluation outcomes on crowdsourcing platforms.

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