Técnicas e instrumentos de recolección de datos

The goal of an idea competition is to attract fresh thinking through increased quantities of ideas, with effective marketing to provide creative entries to problems encountered by the organisation.

The key here is to attract as wide an audience as possible to maximise the wide array of creativity. This will only be achieved if the competition is effectively marketed as a vibrant, inviting opportunity for contestants to be rewarded in a manner fitting to the specific competition or its intended market segment.

Following is a breakdown of the high-level criteria that would have to be met if an idea competition is to succeed as an OI model.

Creative stimulative competitions

As mentioned before, the goal is to attract fresh thinking to an organisation. As this will require individual creativity, the nature of the particular competition quest should entice the entrants to be creatively or analytically challenged.

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Creating a competition is only the first part of the process. The assessment of the entries is another crucial facet. It is important to identify a winning submission and to be able obtain useful innovative suggestions from the entries.

Therefore, a base of expertise will be needed to be able to scan, filter and identify useful information. This base should consist of individuals or groups of people who are well educated within the specific field.

It is suggested by Piller and Ogawa (2006) that the prosumers should also be involved in the evaluation of entries.

Incentive scheme for entrants

A well-developed incentive scheme needs to be developed and introduced together with the competition.

The type of incentive should be fitting to the competition or industry for which the competition is launched, because there is once again a need to attract individuals with some level of expertise or fascination with the topic to the competition. Therefore, by rewarding the entrants in a way that is lucrative to the specific industry will lure better suggestions or possible solutions.

These non-financial incentives can be any of the following (Pisano & Verganti, 2008): o Recognition and increased visibility in the workplace

o Increased reputation in a peer group, or o Psychological self-fulfilment.

Prosumers familiar with the product/service/brand

Although it is not a necessity, having prosumers that are familiar with and knowledgeable about the product, service or brand can provide a substantial advantage. The advantage hereof is twofold:

o Whilst being well educated in or about the specific sector/technology/product, they will not only offer valuable customisations, but will want to do so and participate in the improvement of the specific product.

o Piller and Franke (2003) suggest that well-informed prosumers should be incorporated into both ends of the idea competition – idea submissions, as well as at the review and selection end. They are the best people to evaluate entries, because the evaluation criteria will be based on a buyer/user’s perspective.

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Since this perspective provides the grounds for the evaluation process, and the prosumers are the end-customers, including them in the evaluation process will be beneficial if it is appropriate for the specific competition.

This is the main reason for the success of the Threadless business model (described in section 4.4.2.3 (ii), as well as the reason for the reduced risk of launching potentially unwanted products.

According to Piller et al. (2003), this reduction in risk can be attributed to the fact that the products being sold are what the clients want, since their collective opinion put it into production in the first place.

This means that no effort is wasted in designing a product that will not sell, as the decision to advance any design into production is made by the customers who initially voted to get the product into production.

Well-defined Intellectual Property Rights

One aspect that all the researched industry examples have in common is that once an entry is made by a prosumer, that prosumer gives up the right to that specific idea or concept. This idea is thereafter the property of the hosting organisation, which then owns the right to use, customise and exploit this submission at its own discretion.

An idea competition as a tool is primarily based on the collaboration and sharing of Intellectual Property. Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce.

The prosumer thus gives up ownership of his or her Intellectual Property in return for the possibility of receiving a reward in the form of some or other incentive.

As is the case found in the real-world examples that were researched, these legalities are often communicated through the hosting organisation’s Terms & Conditions document located on their websites.

It is also interesting to note that the Terms & Conditions of all the researched examples include a clause (to which the entrant must comply) on the originality of the submitted idea or solution. An entrant is therefore not allowed to enter, as a proposed solution, any idea that is not his or her own work.

This is to protect the hosting organisation from infringing on a protected or patented idea of which they are not aware.

It is thus the responsibility of the organisation to ensure that these Terms of Agreement are well communicated, and agreed upon by all parties concerned. In other words, the prosumer

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should be aware that by entering the competition, he or she is running the risk of sharing Intellectual Property without gaining any form of compensation for it.

The competition should be well marketed

The probability of the success of an idea competition is directly related to the number of entries received for it. This will only be achieved if the competition is well marketed. “Success is therefore in numbers.”