Innovation Contests with Entry Auction

We consider procurement of an innovation from heterogeneous sellers. Innovations are random but depend on unobservable effort and private information. We compare two procurement mechanisms where potential sellers first bid in an auction for admission to an innovation contest. After the contest, an innovation is procured employing either a fixed prize or a first-price auction. We characterize Bayesian Nash equilibria such that both mechanisms are payoff-equivalent and induce the same efforts and innovations. In these equilibria, signaling in the entry auction does not occur since contestants play a simple strategy that does not depend on rivals' private information

In search of excellence - Innovation contests to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in Portugal

Numerous initiatives of different nature have taken place in Portugal over the recent years aiming at raising consciousness of the importance and advantages of innovation and entrepreneurship, persuading businesspeople to place innovation as strategic intent and encouraging would-be entrepreneurs to come forward with novel businesses ideas. Innovation contests are but one of such initiatives. From sporadic events before 2000, the phenomenon gained unprecedented dimension and growing sophistication at several levels, including the number of innovation contests launched annually, number and kind of organizations involved, volume and kind of prizes and support in business plan construction. Today, this is a popular means that a range of different organizations use to uncovering novel business ideas and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. Based on a large data base purposefully built for this research by the author, this paper aims to describe the phenomenon of innovation contests in Portugal and characterize its evolution over the period 2000-2008. Findings show a general use of contests as instruments to promote and prize innovation across a range of target audiences going from high school students to established businesses; an increasing trend in the number of innovation contests launched annually in Portugal; high rates of rotation of the innovation contests launched annually over the period under analysis; a growing diversification in the type of promoters which is particularly clear from 2004 onwards; and that private firms, higher education institutions and business associations appear to be gaining a prominent role as promoters of innovation contests.Innovation contest, innovation, entrepreneurship, Portugal.

Innovation Contests with Entry Auction

We consider procurement of an innovation from heterogeneous sellers. Innovations are random but depend on unobservable effort and private information. We compare two procurement mechanisms where potential sellers first bid in an auction for admission to an innovation contest. After the contest, an innovation is procured employing either a fixed prize or a first-price auction. We characterize Bayesian Nash equilibria such that both mechanisms are payoff-equivalent and induce the same efforts and innovations. In these equilibria, signaling in the entry auction does not occur since contestants play a simple strategy that does not depend on rivals' private information.Contest; Auction; Innovation; Research; R\&D; Procurement; Signaling

Information Disclosure in Innovation Contests

In innovation contests, the progress of the competing firms in the innovation process is usually their private information. We analyze an innovation contest in which research firms have a stochastic technology to develop innovations at a fixed cost, but their progress is publicly announced. We make a comparison with the case of no information revelation: if the progress is disclosed, the expected profit of the firms is higher, but the expected profit of the sponsor is lower. Additionally, we show that firms may voluntarily reveal their information.contest, innovation, information revelation

Evaluating Open Data Innovation: A Measurement Model for Digital Innovation Contests

Digital innovation contests emerge as important intermediaries in open data markets. However the understanding of how contests affect innovation value chains is low and there is a lack of innovation measurement frameworks to support the management of digital innovation contests. Therefore, in this paper we apply design science to design a measurement model for digital innovation contests from the organizer’s perspective that adds to the available knowledge of innovation measurement. We use a recent case of digital innovation contests to motivate the model and discuss its implications on the innovation value chain. The measurement model contributes with new knowledge in the area of open data innovation and provides support for practice in managing innovation through digital innovation contests. For future research we intend to enhance the model to also measure the effects on innovation ecosystems, to operationalize the measures and to evaluate the model in several digital innovation contests as well as to include the perspective of the participants

BEYOND INNOVATION CONTESTS: A FRAMEWORK OF BARRIERS TO OPEN INNOVATION OF DIGITAL SERVICES

Recently, the interest in the innovation of digital services based on open public information (i.e. open data) has increased dramatically. Innovation contests, such as idea competitions and digital innovation contests, have become popular instruments to accelerate the development of new service ideas and prototypes. However, only a few of the service prototypes developed at innovation contests become viable digital services. In order to strengthen the role of innovation contests as innovation instruments, we propose a framework of innovation barriers to open innovation of digital services. The framework has been designed using a systematic research approach including a literature review of existing barriers, an online survey with participants before an innovation contest, and systematic follow-up interviews with teams participating in the contest. The framework consists of 18 innovation barriers and is intended to be used when organizing innovation contests. It supports the process after the contest when prototypes are transformed into viable digital services. For future research, we suggest the framework to be validated in a longitudinal study involving additional cases. Furthermore, we suggest using the framework as a starting point for constructing guidelines that can help in designing innovation contests

In search of excellence - Innovation contests to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in Portugal

Innovation contests are one of numerous initiatives of different nature which have taken place in Portugal over the recent years aiming at raising consciousness of the importance and advantages of innovation and entrepreneurship. From sporadic and unpretentious events before 2000, the phenomenon gained unprecedented dimension and became a popular means that many different organizations use to uncovering novel business ideas and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. Based on a large data base purposefully built for this research by the author, this paper characterizes the phenomenon of innovation contests in Portugal over the period 2000-2008. Findings show an increasing trend in the number of innovation contests launched annually in Portugal, high rates of rotation of the innovation contests launched annually and growing diversification of promoters

In search of excellence - Innovation contests to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in Portugal

Innovation contests are one of numerous initiatives of different nature which have taken place in Portugal over the recent years aiming at raising consciousness of the importance and advantages of innovation and entrepreneurship. From sporadic and unpretentious events before 2000, the phenomenon gained unprecedented dimension and became a popular means that many different organizations use to uncovering novel business ideas and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. Based on a large data base purposefully built for this research by the author, this paper characterizes the phenomenon of innovation contests in Portugal over the period 2000-2008. Findings show an increasing trend in the number of innovation contests launched annually in Portugal, high rates of rotation of the innovation contests launched annually and growing diversification of promoters

Parallel Innovation Contests

We study multiple parallel contests where contest organizers elicit solutions to innovation-related problems from a set of agents. Each agent may participate in multiple contests and exert effort to improve her solution for each contest she enters, but the quality of her solution also depends on an output uncertainty. We first analyze whether an organizer's profit can be improved by discouraging agents from participating in multiple contests. We show, interestingly, that organizers benefit from agents' participation in multiple contests when the agent's output uncertainty is sufficiently large. A managerial insight from this result is that when organizers elicit innovative solutions rather than low-novelty solutions, agents' participation in multiple contests may be beneficial to organizers. We further show that an organizer's profit is unimodal in the number of contests, and the optimal number of contests increases with the agent's output uncertainty. This finding may explain why many organizations run multiple contests in practice, and it prescribes a larger number of contests when organizations seek innovative solutions rather than low-novelty solutions