Managing the Challenges of Becoming an Open Innovation Company: Experiences from Living Labs

Abstract

High-technology firms have paved the way for user-driven innovations, but now even tra- ditional industries are becoming increasingly open. This shift is a great challenge for com- panies with instituted practices, policies, and customer relationships. In this article, we identify four distinct steps in becoming an open innovation company based on our recent research into firms’ experiences with living lab experiments in the information and com- munication technology (ICT) sector. We describe these phases and illustrate the divergent roles that users play in each one. We conclude with a discussion on the differences between the management challenges of conventional development projects versus the open innovation model. For all firms that wish to become open innovators, we recom- mend that their managers promote an open organizational mindset and apply groupware that supports increased openness, because traditional project management tools are insuf- ficient for open innovation.