Problem Solving and External Innovators
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Interactive Value Creation
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CASE 1: InnoCentive: The Idea of Crowdsourcing
Pre-Assignment:
1. Why would firms use InnoCentive´s service to solve scientific and technical problems?
* First, a seeker typically comes to InnoCentive because it has not been able to solve a problem on its own.
* The Use of InnoCentive may lead to Bigger breakthroughs/increases the potential of innovations
* Organizations can tap into the diversity of the InnoCentive Marketplace to find gifted individuals they would never otherwise identify.
* The pool of potential participant-solvers is quite broad including many people from many backgrounds, countries, personal and professional situations and experiences * The Web-based marketplace has attracted more than 135,000 solvers from 175 countries. * IC´s pool of Solvers, 40% of whom held PhDs, represented diverse fields and included private sector participants, academics, students, consultants, and retirees, among others. * Often these individuals have a unique perspective that allows them to “connect the dots” in ways the organization never would.
* Limited number of scientists in a single knowledge domain leads to a so-called local-search phenomenon.
* Problems tend to be identified, defined and handled with based on local expertise, experience, and knowledge, using tools that were effective to the in-house group in the past. * When local search do not work, problems are often not solved or simply lay dormant. * Even when this search approach works, the problems are often resolved with a suboptimal solution due to the limited search of solution space. * These inside problems might well be solved by connecting diverse outside scientists to them. * A company that could make such connections could moreover increase not only the likelihood of a problem
Interactive Value Creation
-------------------------------------------------
CASE 1: InnoCentive: The Idea of Crowdsourcing
Pre-Assignment:
1. Why would firms use InnoCentive´s service to solve scientific and technical problems?
* First, a seeker typically comes to InnoCentive because it has not been able to solve a problem on its own.
* The Use of InnoCentive may lead to Bigger breakthroughs/increases the potential of innovations
* Organizations can tap into the diversity of the InnoCentive Marketplace to find gifted individuals they would never otherwise identify.
* The pool of potential participant-solvers is quite broad including many people from many backgrounds, countries, personal and professional situations and experiences * The Web-based marketplace has attracted more than 135,000 solvers from 175 countries. * IC´s pool of Solvers, 40% of whom held PhDs, represented diverse fields and included private sector participants, academics, students, consultants, and retirees, among others. * Often these individuals have a unique perspective that allows them to “connect the dots” in ways the organization never would.
* Limited number of scientists in a single knowledge domain leads to a so-called local-search phenomenon.
* Problems tend to be identified, defined and handled with based on local expertise, experience, and knowledge, using tools that were effective to the in-house group in the past. * When local search do not work, problems are often not solved or simply lay dormant. * Even when this search approach works, the problems are often resolved with a suboptimal solution due to the limited search of solution space. * These inside problems might well be solved by connecting diverse outside scientists to them. * A company that could make such connections could moreover increase not only the likelihood of a problem