User Innnovation

Abstract

The course introduces the students to the long-standing tradition of actively involving users of technology and other knowledge-intensive products in the development and production process, and through own cases they develop an entrepreneurial understanding of product development under distributed, user-centered, or open innovation strategies.

Objective

The course includes both lectures and exercises alternately. The goal is to understand the opportunity of user innovation for management and develop strategies to harness the value of user-developed ideas and contributions for firms and other organizations. The students actively participate in discussions during the lectures and contribute presentations of case studies during the exercises. The combination should allow to compare theory with practical cases from various industries. The course presents and builds upon recent research and challenges the students to devise innovation strategies that take into account the availability of user expertise, free and public knowledge, and the interaction with communities that span beyond one organization. Grading is based on the final exam, the class presentations (including the slides) as well as class participation.

Content

This course on user innovation extends courses on knowledge management and innovation as well as marketing. The students are introduced to the long-standing tradition of actively involving users of technology and other knowledge-intensive products in the development and production process, and through own cases they develop an entrepreneurial understanding of product development under distributed, user-centered, or open innovation strategies. Theoretical underpinnings taught in the course include models of innovation and the structuration of technology.

Resources