A Proposal for a Standard With Innovation Management System

Engaging Communities of Lead Users With Technology:
Findings From a European eParticipation Project
Brendan Galbraith 1 , Brian Cleland 1 , Suzanne Martin 2 Jonathan Wallace 3 and
Maurice Mulvenna 3
1
Department of Management and Leadership, University of Ulster, UK
2
School of Health Sciences, University of Ulster, UK
3
School of Computing and Mathematics, University of Ulster, UK
b.galbraith@ulster.ac.uk
Abstract: eParticipation tools aim to facilitate intrinsic engagement from communities of stakeholders and
citizens to develop more effective, bottom-up and inclusive public policies, raising the potential to become an
efficient engagement tool. It is argued that eParticipation tools such Electronic Town Meeting (eTM) are
technological intermediaries that have the potential to efficiently engage communities of sought-after ‘lead users’
to leverage economically valuable ‘sticky knowledge’ in a public policy arena. While the lead user method has
been demonstrated to be very effective (Lüthje and Herstatt, 2004), challenges remain around the sustainability
of such an approach, particularly on a large-scale. Olson and Bakke (2001) point out that one of the challenges of
embedding lead user processes is overcoming the perception that the method is itself “overly burdensome”, and
that “it is very likely that the time and effort required to sustain the lead user method is a major obstacle to its
adoption and/or regular use”.A possible mediating tool that might be able to efficiently leverage communities of
lead users is the eTMeParticipation tool. This paper links the theoretical work in the field of user innovation and
eParticipation. Empirical research comprised eight eTM (Electronic Town Meeting) case studies that were part of
a large EC eParticipation project called PARTERRE. Findings show that the eTM has had a very positive effect
on engaging lead users to reveal sticky knowledge as well as providing users benefits such as enhanced peer
learning.
Keywords: user communities, innovation, eParticipation, lead users
1. Introduction
As the body of academic research in e-government widens,the concept of e-government itself, has
been established as an effectivemechanism for increasing government productivity and efficiency and
a key enabler of citizen-centric services (Irani et al, 2012).eParticipationfalls under the rubric of
eGovernment and has been defined as a technology-mediated interaction between the civil society,
the administration and the formal politics sphere’s usually over some decision making, legislation or
simple deliberation process (Sanford and Rose, 2007). Generally, eParticipation has been promoted
as means to re-engage and re-activate citizens in the decision-making process (Koussouris et al,
2011) and address diminishing participation in public debate and declining voter turnout (Demo-net,
2006).Although technology is the medium for offering cutting edge eParticipation services to the
public, the main barrier resides on the non-technical aspect as the problems and issues that have to
be dealt by eParticipation are far more important than drawing a technical plan that will lead to
sophisticated eParticipation offerings (Charalabidis et al., 2009). A range of digital tools and online
methodologies have been developed in recent years in support of the European Commission’s
eParticipation agenda.These solutions have been designed to support citizen engagement in political
processes in order to improve policy-making and support the evolving needs of civic society.
As eParticipationtools aim to facilitate intrinsic engagement from communities of stakeholders and
citizens to develop more effective, bottom-up and inclusive public policies, it has the potential to
become an efficient engagement tool. It is argued that eParticipation case studies are seedbeds to
investigate the potential of efficiently engaging communities of sought-after ‘lead users’ toleverage
economically valuable ‘sticky knowledge’ in a public policy arena.While the lead user method has
been demonstrated to be very effective (Lüthje and Herstatt, 2004), challenges remain around the
sustainability of such an approach. Olson and Bakke (2001) point out that one of the challenges of
embedding lead user processes is overcoming the perception that the method is itself “overly
burdensome”, and that “it is very likely that the time and effort required to sustain the lead user
method is a major obstacle to its adoption and/or regular use”. One possible mediating tool that might
be able to efficiently leverage communities of lead users is the Electronic Town Meeting (eTM)
eParticipation tool.The Electronic Town Meeting (eTM) is an example of an eParticipation
methodology and toolset that has been tested in a variety of cultural contexts and policy areas. In
particular,it was piloted in the PARTERRE project, which was funded byEuropean Framework 7’s
245