In a series of postings, we introduce some key figures and results from
our 2013
OIA Study – A Market Report & Comparison of more than 160 Open Innovation Accelerators (OIAs)
— intermediaries, brokers, platforms, and consultancies for open innovation
and customer co-creation.
According to our research, service providers for open innovation
(OIAs), can be structred along two
fundamental principles: (1) The kind of information required and (2) the
method to identify and initiate the collaboration with an external actor:
(1) The type of information searched by clients:
- Market information is information about customer and market needs, i.e.
information about preferences, needs, desires, satisfaction, motives, and etc.
of the customers and users of a new (potential) product or service offering. - Technological information is information on (technological) solution
possibilities, i.e. information about how to apply a technology to transform
customer needs into new products and services best.
Our research revealed a significant difference between
OIAs and the methods applied for projects searching for market/need
information, compared to those searching for technological/solution
information. Solving of specific technological problems favors different
approaches than searching for need information. Also, both kinds demand very
different kinds of participant communities and incentive schemes.
(2) How to initiate the coordination with external participants:
- An Open Call refers to a
problem statement that is publicly announced, directed to a heterogeneous, and
generally large, network of external actors. Potential solution providers
("solvers") decide via self-selection whether they want to
participate in the process. The "seeker", i.e. the entity issuing the call, then
selects the best submissions. - Open Search refers to a broad search for information and sources,
conducted by the OIA with neither too concrete pre-assumptions about
information aspects nor source details. A core idea is to actively seek for
potential external contributors using advanced sampling methods, engaging in
pre-screening specific characteristics (e.g., "lead user"
characteristics), using social networks or network analysis to identify central
actors from different domains. - In addition, our study revealed a third form of
finding partners and initiating collaboration: a selective call. The
selective call is a hybrid between call and search. OIAs applying this
mechanism follow a two-step procedure. They pre-select a number of potential
external actors who might hold the desired information and then call for
participation within this sub-sample.
Combining these two general principles, we can
distinguish between different methods for open innovation. We call those "OIA services", as these are the
services and solutions offered by the OIA (look at this earlier post for a table):
- Contests: Generating
contributions to a technical and/or market related task with the objective to
identify the "best" submission in response to an open call. - Workshops: Generating technical
and/or market information by performing workshops. - Open market search: Searching and
observing defined areas for market information (e.g., Netnography in online
forums). - Technological search: Searching and observing defined areas for technical
information (patents, technologies, user bases).
Among these categories, we find in our 2013 market
study that the majority of OIAs focus on providing ideation contests or other
contest for technical problem solving.
For the full picture and many more details, including detailed profiles of 160 Open Innovation Service Providers, refer to The Market for Open Innovation: The 2013
RWTH Open Innovation Accelerator Survey, co-authored by Kathleen Diener & Frank Piller, 2nd
edition, May 2013. Lulu Publishing: Raleigh, USA
Check all options how to get the study at study.open-innovation.com
