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  • Research-Technology Management

Innovation Contests for High-Tech Procurement

By: Jin Hyun Paik, Martin Scholl, Rinat A. Sergeev, Steven Randazzo and Karim R. Lakhani
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Abstract

Innovation managers rarely use crowdsourcing as an innovative instrument despite extensive academic and theoretical research. The lack of tools available to compare and measure crowdsourcing, specifically contests, against traditional methods of procuring goods and services is one barrier to adoption. Using ethnographic research to understand how managers solved their problems, we find that the crowdsourcing model produces higher costs in the framing phase but yields savings in the solving phase, whereas traditional procurement is downstream cost intensive. Two case study examples with the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) and the United States Department of Energy demonstrate a potential total cost savings of 27% and 33%, respectively, using innovation contests. We provide a comprehensive evaluation framework for crowdsourcing contests developed from a high-tech industry perspective, which are applicable to other industries.

Keywords

Open Innovation; Contests; Crowdsourcing; Nasa; Evaluation; Acquisition; Information Technology; Innovation and Invention; Performance Evaluation; Framework

Citation

Hyun Paik, Jin, Martin Scholl, Rinat A. Sergeev, Steven Randazzo, and Karim R. Lakhani. "Innovation Contests for High-Tech Procurement." Research-Technology Management 63, no. 2 (March–April 2020): 36–45.
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About The Author

Karim R. Lakhani

Technology and Operations Management
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More from the Authors
  • Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality By: Fabrizio Dell'Acqua, Edward McFowland III, Ethan Mollick, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Katherine C. Kellogg, Saran Rajendran, Lisa Krayer, François Candelon and Karim R. Lakhani
  • Consuming Contests: The Effect of Outcome Uncertainty on Spectator Attendance in the Australian Football League By: Patrick Ferguson and Karim R. Lakhani
  • The Crowdless Future? How Generative AI Is Shaping the Future of Human Crowdsourcing By: Léonard Boussioux, Jacqueline N. Lane, Miaomiao Zhang, Vladimir Jacimovic and Karim R. Lakhani
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