PhD Defence Carrielle Somers | Product Innovation in Open Communities”.

Product Innovation in Open Communities.

Carrielle Somers is a PhD student in the department Product–Market Relations. (Co)Promotors are prof.dr.ir. J. Henseler from the faculty Engineering Technology, University of Twente.

Organisational innovation is the introduction of new products, services, processes and technologies to business and public organizations. The study of organisational innovation encompasses the field of product innovation in open communities that is a combination of three innovation phenomena – open innovation, product innovation, and community innovation. Open innovation occurs based on converging external and internal innovation for the business or public organization. Product innovation occurs when firms introduce new products and services to meet market demand. Community innovation is the contribution to innovation from large external groups outside the firm’s boundaries. This dissertation is an analysis of product innovation in the openness of online communities, outside traditional boundaries of business and public organizations. Its main research question is how does product innovation occur within open communities?

This dissertation is divided into three studies. The sequence of these studies follows two steps in the general procedure for ‘good’ theory building by John Wacker (Wacker, 1998). The first study is a review of literature for group perspectives of online communities. Its key finding concerns a distinction between three macro group perspectives of communities – labelled as the outside-in perspective, the epistemic perspective and the competitive perspective. The second study is an evaluation of the development process and motivations in maker communities. It has three conceptual findings. The first is a range of product innovation that begins with copying. The second consists of stages in autonomous product development. The third is a listing of product innovation outcomes for individuals and communities. A typology based of product innovation outcomes is described in the third study. It is based on observations of occurrences in online communities.

Macro group perspectives in the first study provide an account of group sizes contributing to community innovation. The range of product innovation points out the importance of copying, innovating and acquiring exclusivity to individualistic product development. Autonomous product development draws a connection between personalisation and product innovation related to complex products. The typology presents innovation outcomes that emerge from open community environments. Overall, these findings signify that the individualistic skill of developing tools is critical for peer production systems with societal purposes like healthcare and medical devices, especially when combined with community innovation. With the widespread reach of 3D printing technology, individuals are increasingly building their own medical devices. Open peer communities are central to this shift. They provide access to resources, shared repositories of knowledge and peer feedback. This research has enriched our understanding of the  practices and motivations behind people creating and enhancing products through open communities.