User Innovation

The block course on user innovation is offered as an elective course at MTEC and 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.

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 as well as class participation. This page contains general information about the course including the lecture slides (last year's version; the changes to the current slides will be updated usually during the day of the lecture) and the current reading assignments.

Administration

Lecturer: PD Dr. Stefan Haefliger
Assistant: Fotini Pachidou

Location
Introduction: Sept 20, 15-17:00, HG D 1.2
Module I: Sept 28, 8:15-17:00, HG E 23
Module II: Oct 4, 8:15-17:00, HG E 23
Module III: Oct 5, 8:15-17:00, HG E 23

How to get the 3 credit points (the same for all students)

• Class presentation of a user innovation case (counts 50% of the grade)
  20-40 minutes plus discussion
  Distribute handout or slides
• Written exam of 90’ (counts 50% of the grade)
  Transfer questions on the themes discussed in class
  Mandatory reading: Democratizing Innovation. Eric von Hippel, 2005. MIT Press
  Other reading assignments optional but recommended
  Past Exam from January 2008 for reference.
  Please consult the online schedule for exam time and location.

Course agenda

Podcasts

The 2011 lectures can be found at the Multimedia Portal. Reasons why certain lectures do not appear include intellectual property issues (since all podcasts are creative commons licensed and we sometimes use sensitive company data to illustrate teachings) and technological failure in the hands of the user (=lecturer).

Lecture slides

September 20, 2012: Introductory course

September 28, 2012: Innovation Models, Invention and Flexibility
Augmented Product Innovation

October 4, 2012: Knowledge Management in and between Firms, Community Access

October 5, 2012: Lead User Innovation, Entrepreneurial strategies, incentives, and IP issues
Lead User Innovation (Dr. Marion Poetz)

Student presentations 2012

Kasics, Schnellmann and Flury: Coffee roaster

Timpu: Unicycle

Riechert, Starmans and D’Aliessi: Xbox Kinect

Ehrle and Engler: The ''Jugaad'' way: The Mitti Cool Refrigerator

Ben Aleya, Pallarolas and Starodubtsev: GEOX

Student presentations 2011 (examples)

Cavelti, Näf and Yanes: GoProCamera

Duran Fernandez and Sinn: Counter-Strike

Stark: Arduino (handout)

Gustafsson, Olthof and Sandström: senz° storm umbrellas

Dordor, Fedriga and Poncemi: Diners Club

Ackermann, Akin and Akol: Friendsurance

Kaiser and Stampfli: MounTainBike

Pelaez, Schuppisser and Wassmann: E-Bike

Student presentations 2010 (examples)

Lüthi, Marfurt and Sprock: Multitouch screens

Riss and Yu: Threadless

Sigg and Zumstein: Twin Tip Ski

Elmazoski, Hellmann and Längle: Nike ID-Toolkit

Brand and Heuscher: TimeSTRING

Heymanns and de Watteville: Coffee/Tea machines

Mehta: WebVideo

Grancini and Savini: Lego

Puigpelat and Zhao: Fondue

Andronikakis and Öznur: Android

Baschnagel and Haller: 2.4 GHz Transceiver Systems

Duran, Geibel and Sabbir: Agressive skating

Limacher and Neunert: Dropbox

Reading assignments (sorted by priority):

To access the journal articles listed below, you have to be within the ETH domain.

• von Hippel, Eric. 2005. Democratizing Innovation. MIT Press.
• von Hippel, E., & von Krogh, G. 2003. The private-collective innovation model in Open Source software development: Issues for organization science. Organization Science, 14: 209-223.
• Faulkner, P. and Runde J. 2009. On the identity of technological objects and user innovations in function. Academy of Management Review, 34(3): 442-462.
• von Krogh, G. 1998. Care in Knowledge Creation. California Management Review, 40: 133-154.
• Jeppesen, L.B. and Frederiksen, L. 2006. Why do User Contribute to Firm-hosted User Communities? The Case of Computer Controlled Music Instruments. Organization Science, 17: 45-63.
• Sarasvathy, S. D. 2001. Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. Academy of Management Review, 26: 243-263.
• von Krogh, G. K. Ichijo, I. Nonaka. 2000. Enabling knowledge creation: Unlocking the mystery of tacit knowledge and unleashing the power of innovation. Oxford University Press.
• Baldwin, C., Hienerth, C., & von Hippel, E. 2006. How user innovations become commercial products: A theoretical investigation and case study. Research Policy. 35 (9): 1291-1313.
• Kozinets, R.V. 2002. The field behind the screen: Using netnography for marketing research in online communities. Journal of Marketing Research, 39: 61-72.