Innovation with Living Labs : a conceptualization of learning from user experiences

This study examines the drivers of success on a crowdsourcing platform. Crowdsourcing enables customers and other external parties to take a proactive role in innovation projects. Compared with an internal model, crowdsourcing allows access to external knowledge at low costs but often fails to attract voluntary contribution. We examine the impact of project task (i.e. clarity and scope) and team (i.e. diversity and size) related drivers on contribution behavior by analyzing more than 200 projects from the ‘Peer to Patent’ initiative. Contrary to internal projects, the drivers’ impact is mediated by the intensity of discussion about a project. This indicates the importance of nurturing interaction to trigger contributions from a project team