Title: Openness of innovating: the new roles of customers and users in business-to-business context

Authors: Hanna Nordlund, Tea Lempiala, Mari Holopainen

Addresses: Technology Centre Innopark Ltd., Vankanlahde 7, FIN-13100 Hameenlinna, Finland. ' School of Science and Technology, Aalto University, Otaniementie 17, FIN-02015 Espoo, Finland. ' School of Science and Technology, Aalto University, Otaniementie 17, FIN-02015 Espoo, Finland

Abstract: This paper discusses open innovation from the viewpoint of customers and users, focusing on their new roles. The paper focuses particularly on the |user as the innovator| approach that encourages outsourcing at least parts of innovation process to users and user communities. The |user as the innovator| approach is based on three premises in the existing literature: users are capable and willing to innovate, communities are important entities in innovation activity and users are willing to freely reveal their ideas. The empirical material comes mainly from business-to-consumer contexts. The aim of this paper is to highlight the characteristics of the business-to-business context and discuss the premises in that light. Finally, the paper proposes a future research agenda in order to better understand and capitalise on the |user as the innovator| approach in business-to-business contexts.

Keywords: open innovation; users; innovators; B2B; business-to-business; openness; new roles; customers; outsourcing; innovation processes; user capability; user willingness; innovation activity; ideas; B2C; business-to-consumer; entrepreneurship; innovation management; social media; user communities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEIM.2011.043050

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2011 Vol.14 No.4, pp.282 - 297

Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

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