The Challenges of Collaborative Knowledge Creation in Open Innovation Teams

Abstract

In open innovation teams, people from different organizations work together to develop new products, services, or markets. This organizational diversity can positively influence collaborative knowledge creation but can frustrate and obstruct the process as well. To increase the success rates of open innovation, it is vital to learn how individuals create knowledge in open innovation teams and the problems they face. However, HRD research on this topic is still lacking. This article reviews the literature in HRD, organizational, and learning sciences, describing how individuals interact when creating knowledge collaboratively, and gives an overview of the challenges with collaborative knowledge creation in open innovation teams. The article ends with a discussion and conclusion, and implications for further research.

Exploring Design Principles of Organizing for Collaborative Innovation: The Case of an Open Innovation Initiative

“…The first and second principles hold the potential for creative solutions, but are also ways of including and enabling multiple local realities (Hosking, ), resulting in internal strains, frustration and political struggles (Huxham & Beech, ; du Chatenier et al, ), contributing to an ambiguous and dynamic environment. The third principle, related to peoples’ identities, guides people to act in certain ways, and not others (Somers, ) and our study exposes that multiple identities (even if they are confusing) utilize the knowledge, connections and relations available, and that when there is no perceived identity created in the collaboration, participants struggled to find the bridge between the different organizations.…”

An Exploratory Study of Group Development and Team Learning

“…Similarly, they play an important role in the current team learning models because they are associated with higher team learning processes and outcomes (e.g., the model of Van den Bossche et al, ). Different researchers refer to these social conditions as catalyst emergent states (Decuyper et al, ) or team emergent states (Du Chantenier, Verstegen, Biemans, Mulder & Omta, ; Marks, Mathieu, & Zaccaro, ). These states are “cognitive, motivational, and affective states of teams [that are] … dynamic in nature and vary as function of team context, inputs, processes, and outcomes” (Marks et al, , p. 357).…”

Managing Open Innovation: Exploring Challenges at the Interfaces of an Open Innovation Arena

“…The dominant streams in the literature on the management of open innovation both adopt the perspective of a single firm engaging in open innovation activities and ignore the managerial challenges confronting the open innovation actors. A related issue is the challenge of collaborative knowledge creation in open innovation teams (Chatenier et al., 2009). Chatenier and colleagues argue that diversity is necessary, but can be a source of frustration and conflict.…”

“…This challenge is related to the specific characteristics of this type of open innovation actor, which may explain why it has not been studied in the literature. The challenges that have been addressed relate to collaboration in open innovation teams (Chatenier et al., 2009); however, the focus has been on diversity at the team level, not the organizational level, which would correspond to collaboration taking place in the arena. Another problem is who should be invited to participate in the arena.…”

“…The (Chatenier et al, 2009). Chatenier and colleagues argue that diversity is necessary, but can be a source of frustration and conflict.…”