Get your head in the game : How involving your employees in internal idea and innovation contests can trigger innovation

This study is within the field of corporate entrepreneurship. The thesis main purpose is to investigate how large Swedish companies can involve their employees in the innovation process by using internal idea and innovation contests and furthermore how these are designed and what the key elements are. Even if these type of activities have become increasingly popular, the literature is lacking and an in depth knowledge is missing, something this study aims to contribute with. Through a qualitative study based on 23 in-depth interviews, with three different interview groups, we can conclude that in order to involve the employees in the innovation process the company needs to consider ten factors. We can furthermore demonstrate internal idea and innovation contests to be an effective way to involve employees in the innovation process, since many of these factors are closely connected to the 28 key elements we found as important for these activities. Finally, we found twelve design factors to be commonly used for these activities but can conclude that there is no general design that fits all companies. Instead the company needs to go through three “streams” in order to choose a format that fits them the best.