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Postgraduate Kopishynska K.O.
National technical university of Ukraine “Kyiv
polytechnic institute”, Ukraine
Intermediary
platforms as an instrument of implementing the concept of Open Innovation
The
majority of current top-managers are beginning to realize that it is almost
impossible to attract to their companies all the most talented experts and
scholars. Active innovative development of global corporations promoted the
ideas of openness, the use of external R&D, and thus caused the spread of
the concept of Open Innovation.
Henry
Chesbrough, the author of the conception, characterizes it in a single
sentence: “…open innovation is the use of purposive inflows and outflows of
knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for
external use of innovation, respectively”. Thus, the main idea of this
progressive conception is that firms can and should use external ideas as well
as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as they look to
advance their technology [1]
Currently,
there are many successful examples of using the concept of open innovation by such companies as Nokia, IBM, Procter and Gamble, Cisco, Intl, Eli Lilly etc. All these corporations used different
forms and instruments of collaboration with external partners, implementing
open innovations. However, between a company and external sources should be
intermediaries that monitor and control the flow of information.
Intermediaries
are individuals, organizations, networks or spaces which connect people, ideas
and resources. They can take a variety of forms – some incubate innovations by
providing a ‘safe’ space for collaboration and experimentation; some connect
entrepreneurs with the supports they need to grow their innovations; and others
help to spread innovations by developing networks and collaborations [2].
Crowdsourcing
is distributed problem solving, which most complex business problems of the
company are broken down into microtasks and completed efficiently by an
on-demand, scalable workforce [3]. In fact, crowdsourcing is a form of open
innovation. Many companies are using crowdsourcing to improve their products or
to produce innovations.
Intermediary
platforms are the type of crowdsourcing platforms, which are using the
principles of open innovation and crowdsourcing opportunities to achieve their
goals. There are many forms of intermediary platforms (tab.1). These services
propose problem
solving in different fields,
such as applied research, pharmaceuticals, information technology, marketing,
HR and others.
Table
1
The examples of intermediary platforms
|
Platform groups |
Name of the platform |
The essence of the platform |
|
Research &
Development platforms |
InnoCentive |
open
innovation problem solving |
|
IdeaConnection
|
idea
marketplace and problem solving |
|
|
Yet2.com
|
IP
market place |
|
|
PRESANS
(beta) |
connect
and solve R&D problems |
|
|
Hypios
|
online
problem solving |
|
|
Innoget
|
research
intermediary platform |
|
|
One
Billion Minds |
online
(social) challenges |
|
|
NineSigma
|
technology
problem solving |
|
|
Ideaken
|
collaborative
crowdsourcing |
|
|
Marketing, Design
& Idea platforms |
CMNTY
Corporation |
community
co-creation |
|
Innovation
Exchange |
open
innovation market place |
|
|
Idea
Bounty |
crowdsourcing
ideas |
|
|
Guerra
Creativa |
crowdsourcing
anything creative |
|
|
Brand
Tags |
tagging
brands |
|
|
Battle
of concepts |
student
challenges |
|
|
crowdSPRING
|
creative
designs |
|
|
BootB.com
|
custom
creative ideas for any creative need |
|
|
12designer
|
marketplace
for creative solutions |
|
|
LeadVine
|
crowdsourcing
lead generation |
|
|
99designs
|
pioneer
in design crowdsourcing |
|
|
Edge
Amsterdam |
elite
sourcing platform |
|
|
OpenIDEO
|
collaborative
design platform |
|
|
Challenge.gov
|
crowdsourcing
for government problems |
|
|
eYeka
|
the
co-creation community |
|
|
Spigit
|
social
innovation platform |
|
|
Cognistreamer
|
-open
innovation platform |
|
|
Collective
Intelligence & Prediction platforms |
Lumenogic
|
collective
intelligence markets |
|
Ushahidi
|
crowdsourcing
crisis information |
|
|
Kaggle
|
data
mining and forecasting |
|
|
We
Are Hunted |
the
online music chart |
|
|
Google
Image Labeler |
crowdsourced
image labeling |
|
|
HR & Freelancers
platforms |
TopCoder
|
competition-based
software crowdsourcing |
|
Spudaroo
|
crowdsourcing
copywriting |
|
|
Clickworker
|
small
online task solving |
|
|
Amazon
Mechanical Turk |
low-cost
crowdsourcing |
|
|
Open innovation
software |
Imaginatik
|
collective
intelligence software |
|
Napkin
Labs |
connect
with consumers, experts, employees |
|
|
Venture
Spirit |
gamification
platform |
|
|
Wellspring
Worldwide |
open
innovation software |
|
|
Intermediary open
innovation services |
Big
Idea Group |
organize
innovation contests and idea hunts |
|
Skild
|
organize
innovation quests |
|
|
Pharmalicensing
|
open
innovation for the life sciences |
|
|
Chaordix
|
crowdsourcing
engine for innovation |
|
|
DataStation
|
complete
innovation platform |
Source:
[4]
The
most prominent among these platforms is InnoCentive. It was the first
online-laboratory, where world-class scientists and scientific organizations
could cooperate in global scientific environment. Now InnoCentive is the world leader
in crowdsourcing innovation problems whose global network consists of millions
of problem solvers.
Hence,
intermediary platforms become extremely urgent in current economic environment.
Lack of financial resources for research and development may result
deceleration of innovative development, but intermediary platforms can facilitate
the spread of the concept of open innovation and active innovative development of
enterprises.
References:
1. Chesbrough, H. W. Open Innovation: A New Paradigm for Understanding
Industrial Innovation [Electronic resource]: / H. W. Chesbrough // Website -
Mode of access: http://www.emotools.es/static/upload/files/Openinnovationparadigm.pdf
2. Innovation intermediaries [Electronic resource]: / Website - Mode of
access: http://www.socialinnovator.info/connecting-people-ideas-and-resources/innovation-intermediaries
3. What Is Crowdsourcing? [Electronic resource]: / Website - Mode of
access: http://www.crowdsource.com/what-is-crowdsourcing/
4. Open Innovation & Crowdsourcing Examples [Electronic resource]: /
Website - Mode of access: http://www.boardofinnovation.com/list-open-innovation-crowdsourcing-examples/