A Proposal for a Standard With Innovation Management System

Brendan Galbraith et al.
Christensen, 2005). This iteration of sticky knowledge means that problem-solving activity often
shuttles back and forth between internal and external task groups, as information cannot be passed
across simply trough directions or specifications, using for instance prototypes as the information
carrier (Kristensen, 1992).
The literature also emphasises the role of various mediating artifacts in combining and transferring
‘sticky’knowledge (Bechky 2003). A key linkage that this paper attempts to explore is better
understanding of the transfer of ‘sticky knowledge’ in public policy domains, namely in the context of
eParticipation. In summary, there are several dimensions that are important for leveraging valuable
sticky knowledge such as: intensity and iteration, problem-solving capabilities, and the role of
mediating artifacts (including technology). These dimensions would appear to align well with
antecedents of eParticipation. For example, researchers argue that placing a premium on comments
that are well thought out raises the bar of participation (Fishkin, 2000). To underline the importance of
engagement and iteration it has been argued that not everyone agrees that deliberation alone can
deliver sound policy (Parkinson, 2003).Another similarity with the user innovation field is
thateParticipationalso engages with communities of citizens (users) and possibly large number of
‘lead users’ in areas related to public policy.In the innovation literature, several studies show that
users with similar interests and needs often form user-innovation communities, where members freely
reveal their innovations and assist each other with innovation development (Franke and Shah, 2003;
Hienerth, 2006; Tietz et al., 2005). Empirical research suggests that his type of ‘user-driven’
innovation is a more fruitful major source of innovation (von Hippel, 1988, 2005). Von Hippel (2005)
argues that one of important functions of innovation communities is:“The practical value of the ‘freely
revealed innovation commons’ these users collectively offer will be increased if their information is
somehow made conveniently accessible”. Moreover, because online communication drastically
lowers the costs of firm-to-user and user-to-user interaction compared to that of an “off-line,”
physically based community, online communities have been adopted by firms to build brands (Muniz
and O’Guinn 2001), support product use (Moon and Sproull 2001), collect feedback and ideas
(Williams and Cothrel 2000), and to charge community-based customer access fees (Armstrong and
Hagel 1996).Recent studies of community-based innovation models in which users join “peer-to-peer
communities of common interest” both online (Lerner and Tirole 2002, Lakhani and von Hippel 2003,
O’Mahony 2003, von Krogh and von Hippel 2003) and “off-line” (Shah 2000, Lüthje 2004, Franke and
Shah 2003) suggest that innovative user communities may yield important value, for example, new
product concepts or product features.
During the course of the PARTERRE project, it became clear that eParticipation tools, which are
designed primarily to engage stakeholder communities in order support policy decision-making, might
also function as a more general tool for engaging with communities lead users in order to support
innovation.In this sense, the Electronic Town Meeting system can be viewed as a toolset and
methodology for lead user and user community engagement, with the potential for improving access
to sticky knowledge and reducing the cost of knowledge transfer.In attempting to understand the
effectiveness and impact of the Electronic Town Meeting as a tool for engaging communities of lead
users, the following questions were formulated:
� How effective was the eTM as an engagement mechanism from the perspective of the user
communities?
� How satisfied were organisers and participants of the eTM?
� What factors would attract user communities to participate in another eTM?
� Specifically, what did the eTM help with?
� What were the most important aspects with regards to stimulating creativity?
2.2 Methodology
The objective of the CIP-funded PARTERRE project is to deploy ICT to enhance the direct
participation of citizens, stakeholders and civil society in democratic decision-making processes using
specific electronic tools. One tool which being piloted as part of the PARTERRE project is the
Electronic Town Meeting (eTM), a deliberative democracy methodology and toolset combining smallgroups
discussion with the advantages of electronic communication.
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