Subproject C5: Designing user innovation communities by means of agent-based modeling

The goal of subproject C5 in funding period 3 is to support PSS manufacturers by enabling user innovation communities as a source of innovation. Participants of user innovation communities exchange ideas with one another; they ask questions, propose solutions to problems, and provide feedback. Joining diverse perspectives and skills, especially those of users, can bring forth innovative ideas. Subproject C5 develops managerial implication for managing user innovation communities by PSS manufacturers. The implications are tested in simulation models of user innovation communities. Methodologically, subproject C5 cooperates closely with subproject A3.

• Empirical studies of the origins (user or manufacturer) of disruptive innovations
  • Consideration of contingencies: market environment (radical changes in customer preferences and technology, intellectual property protection effectiveness), characteristics of innovation (type of innovation: process versus product, functional versus technological innovation)
  • Result: Half of the cases are either users' or manufacturers’ innovations: the division of labor is confirmed and contingencies are shown
• Theoretical models to explain behavior (e.g., willingness to share knowledge, level of effort) in innovation communities
  • Consideration of contingencies: excludability, rivalry in the use and commercialization of innovations, and social rivalry (social status)
  • Result: Low excludability and high social rivalry promote diffusion of innovations; Rivalry can increase the radicalness of user innovations and increase the value for manufacturers
• The modeling work of subproject C5 from funding period 2 provides the basis for in funding period 3

• Utilization of users’ innovations and contributions from communities
• Identification of mechanisms that PSS manufacturers can apply to design and manage user innovation communities
• Managerial implications for PSS manufacturers to manage user innovation communities 
  • Improved compliance of community activities with objectives of the PSS manufacturer
  • Time synchronization of innovative ideas from the communities with the PSS manufacturer’s innovation process
  • Improved integration of user innovation in the PSS development

• Gambardella, A., Raasch, C., von Hippel, E .: The User Innovation Paradigm: Impacts on Markets and Welfare, Management Science, in press.
• Zaggl, M .; Stahl, B., Zhong, Z. (2015) Confidential Areas in Innovation Communities: An Agent-Based Model Using Fuzzy Logic and Qualitative Empirical Data, in: Mladenov, V .; Spasov, G .; Georgieva, P. & Petrova, G. (Eds.): Proceedings 29th European Conference on Modelling and Simulation, Springer, pp. 50-56.