L05 L: Digital innovation ecosystems

Question 1

Crowds are collectively smart when 3
criteria are met:

Answer 1

§ diversity of opinion,
§ independence, and
§ decentralization.

Question 2

Diversity often trumps ability, because:

Answer 2

Diverse opinions provide better building blocks for interactive
construction of solutions

• Diverse opinions create a variety of
  solutions.

Question 3

PROBLEM OF TOO MANY „GOOD“ IDEAS?

Answer 3

§ Organizations can only pay attention (defined as investing time, effort, and
resources) to a subset of suggestions as attention is limited

§ Crowding reduces the chances that any particular suggestion receives attention

§ Organizations with inadequate techniques for handling suggestions may:
- Miss out on key ideas
- Alienate an important audience

Question 4

DISTANT SEARCH – NARROW ATTENTION

Answer 4

§ Tendency NOT to pay attention to more distant solutions
§ Organizations tend to pay attention to issues and ideas
- that are more familiar to what they are used to
- that are related to other suggestions
- that have been developed by people they know

§ Paradox:
This happens even to organizations that strive to gain access to distant
solutions!!!

Question 5

INTERNAL BARRIERS TO OPEN INNOVATION AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR R&D MANAGERS:

Answer 5

Opening up expert tasks to essentially anyone puts professional identity and legitimacy at risk.

Experts need to refocus their identity: From problem-solvers to solution-seekers
Reframing the open innovation method as tool to for R&D professionals to achieve mission faster.

Implications for R&D managers:
§ Encourage and reward solution seeking
§ Hero stories about problem solvers need to evolve to celebrate the innovators who find
solutions in creative ways

Question 6

USERS MOTIVATION TO INNOVATE

Answer 6

(1) Often solving their own problems
(2) Strong intrinsic motivation
(3) Sensitive to ‘sense of community’

Question 7

Key Elements of Community Design

Answer 7

§ Shared interest
Resource commons or common goals.

§ Collaborative values
Willingness to share knowledge, contribute to the success of fellow community members, and seek fairness in community contributions and the distribution of rewards

§ Community-oriented leadership
A focus on facilitating community growth and sustainability, member collaboration, and promotion of collaborative values and practices

§ Expandable commons
Knowledge and other resource pools that all members can contribute to and draw from

§ Protocols and infrastructure that support member collaboration
Systems, processes, and norms that support both direct and pooled
collaborative relationships among members

Question 8

Norm-based IP

Answer 8

(operate entirely on basis of implicit social norms that are held in common by community members), e.g. protection of recipe
- Punishment: loss of status, shaming, denial of community benefits