Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top

2019 | Book

Introduction: Co-creation in the Era of Bottom-Up Economics Read chapter Read first chapter

Co-Creation

Reshaping Business and Society in the Era of Bottom-up Economics

Editors: Tobias Redlich, Manuel Moritz, Jens P. Wulfsberg

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Management for Professionals

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Login to get access
insite
SEARCH

About this book

Across several industries, we are observing a paradigm shift from traditional, firm-centric and top-down value creation to more open and collaborative approaches, also referred to as bottom-up economics. The boundaries of firms dissolve and external actors (customers, user, suppliers etc.) enter the domain of value creation by means of advanced information and communication technologies. These new and evolving patterns require a renewed and interdisciplinary understanding of how co-creation enables organizations to reshape business and society.

With contributions from industrial and academic experts, this book provides deep insights into the theory and practice of bottom-up economics, and addresses the major opportunities and challenges that have emerged in the era of co-creation.

A must read for decision-makers looking to innovate their companies' business models—from ideation to marketing. Dr.-Ing. Michaela Colla, K-GXI Leader – Industry 4.0 at Volkswagen

Simply put, co-creation is the future of work. With technology morphing the way we work and young people wanting to tackle problems that matter, co-creation is the sandbox where the world can come together to solve big challenges. Plus, co-creation rapidly delivers products with built-in market fit. Megan Brewster, Vice President of Advanced Manufacturing at Launch Forth

Successful leaders will co-create the future. This book is an excellent starting point.Jürgen Bilo, Managing Director co-pace GmbH, The Startup Organisation of Continental AG

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Introduction: Co-creation in the Era of Bottom-Up Economics
Abstract
In many industries, we observe a paradigm shift from traditional firm-centric and top-down value creation towards more open and collaborative bottom-up approaches. Firms’ boundaries dissolve, and external actors can enter the domain of industrial value creation by means of advanced information and communication technologies. Beyond that, we also find examples where people co-create value with others without industrial actors necessarily being involved (e.g. open source communities, makerspaces). Thus, rethinking business as usual in the era of bottom-up economics via the concept of co-creation offers great potentials for both, firms and prosumers.
Tobias Redlich, Manuel Moritz, Jens P. Wulfsberg

Collaborative Value Creation

Frontmatter
How to Co-create Value with Users: A Case Study on Local Motors’ Contest Community
Abstract
Web-based co-creation with users represents a promising approach for firms to improve their innovativeness, to search for unconventional solutions and very often to outperform traditional inhouse research and development (R&D). Collaborating with online communities is one way to go, using crowdsourcing contests another one. These days, we also find interesting hybrid structures in so-called contest communities that combine the best of both worlds, collaboration and competition. We present new insights from a case study on a contest community with special focus on participating users. Our results show that users greatly differ among their backgrounds, motivation and behavior and, thus, must be treated accordingly. Based on these insights, we derive management implications for firms that want to tap into co-creation.
Manuel Moritz, Tobias Redlich
Using Open Production Sites for Supporting New Ways of Corporate Innovation
Abstract
As new patterns on how to think of innovation and organization develop one can observe that the boundaries of companies dissolve more and more towards more open and collaborative practices. This article examines one part of this overall development, namely the opportunities as well as challenges of open production sites and the many ways companies are trying to integrate them not only into existing innovation processes but also into production processes. Incorporating or integrating such methods into existing corporate structures offers the opportunity of working with state of the art technology collaboratively, together with tinkerers, makers, engineers, architects, artists or artisans, and therefore to really “think outside the box”. Fostering innovative practices and production by integrating and exploiting the potential of more open ways of producing and innovating will very likely lead to a more sustainable and economical production of goods and services.
Jan-Hauke Branding, Sissy-Ve Basmer-Birkenfeld, Tobias Redlich
Distributed Manufacturing: Make Things Where You Need Them
Abstract
In contrast to mass manufacturing, distributed manufacturing involves making products in many locations around the world, close to where they will be used. In the same way that the internet has democratized access to information, there is the potential for a decentralized system of production to democratize the manufacturing function. This chapter gives an overview of Distributed Manufacturing and suggests how companies may be able to think differently about their value chains. Many of the examples discussed are from emerging economies, where weak supply chain infrastructure can lead to high distribution costs that make distributed manufacturing attractive at an earlier stage of its development.
Anna Sera Lowe
Co-creation of Value Proposition: Stakeholders Co-creating Value Propositions of Goods and Services
Abstract
Co-creation has evolved into a powerful concept in theory as well as in practice. Customers and other stakeholders are increasingly involved in the process of innovation and learning. Additionally, the value proposition is a main element of the business model that describes the promise delivered to the customer. As the interaction between companies and their stakeholders increase, value is co-created increasingly. Within this process, stakeholders should also take an active part in shaping offerings and experiences and, thus, become co-creators of value propositions. This chapter combines the co-creation concept with the up-coming value proposition paradigm, which has become popular in business model management and marketing. By describing the concepts of co-creation, value proposition and at least the co-creation of value proposition, managers gain a better understanding of these approaches. This is underpinned by practical examples. To show how the co-creation of value proposition can be implemented in practice, we describe a process of value proposition co-creation in detail.
Stefan Vorbach, Christiana Müller, Elisabeth Poandl
Blockchain-Enabled Open Business Models: New Means to Shared Value Capturing?
Abstract
A key success factor for open business models (OBM) is having strict governance mechanisms to execute value creation and value capture mechanisms. While governance mechanisms on the value creation side have been studied at length, little is known about how to manage and govern value capture mechanisms. Our research assumes that, first, transaction costs are high due to a complex and dynamic collaborative network. Second, entry barriers for participating in OBMs are often high and regulated strictly by specific parameters. Third, it is often challenging to incentivize and compensate participants in a quick and transparent way, which may lead to a lack of motivation for both internal and external partners. We discuss the use of blockchain technologies to overcome these challenges. Our theoretical discussions are supported by three practical cases from the crypto- and blockchain-world.
Robin P. G. Tech, Jonas Kahlert, Jessica Schmeiss
How to Take Advantage of Online Platforms Like the Sharing Economy Does
Abstract
The Sharing Economy and associated online platforms are catching attention because of their rapid success and evolution. A closer look at different cases from Germany offers plenty of (new) ideas for business performance irrespective of the organization being an incumbent or a startup, acting for profit or non-profit. Hence, a systematic analysis of online platforms will help to understand the phenomenon and outline opportunities for organizations and private users.
Anja Herrmann-Fankhaenel
The F.A.I.R. Model of Cooperation: How Managers Can Co-create Value Within Innovation Networks
Abstract
In today’s rapidly changing society firms can no longer rely on their elaborated portfolios that succeeded in the past but have to seek for innovation as a new way of creating value. To enhance innovation, many firms join networks but only few managers act accordingly to the new culture of cooperation that innovation networks require. With that in mind, we will show why networks can promote innovations and how managers need to change their mindsets when they join an innovation network. Finally, we will highlight three phases that members undergo on their way to create new value within innovation networks and present guidelines for each step of cooperation.
Jules Thoma

Open Source Ecosystems

Frontmatter
Coordination, Loyalty and Competitive Advantage: What We Can Learn from Open Source
Abstract
Well-educated employees are the most important asset for a company to be successful under market conditions. This is even more true in the digital economy because these employees are the source of innovations. However, to be innovative, such employees need an inspiring work place and some level of freedom. Consequently, such employees cannot easily be controlled and, therefore, the managers face a principal-agent problem. To solve this, the employer has to win the employees loyalty. This can be achieved if the employer offers long term as well as short-term development opportunities. Based on a study in the open source community, I argue that the latter can be achieved by providing project visions and optimal challenges.
Benno Luthiger
Understanding Open Source Software Communities
Abstract
Over the last decades, open source development has become an integral part of the software industry, a key component of the innovation strategies of all major IT providers and an important vehicle to increase brand recognition. This chapter provides a systematic overview of the genesis and history of open source software development communities, their socio-economic contexts and their entrepreneurial impact.
Jan-Felix Schrape
Harnessing the Synergy Potential of Open Source Hardware Communities
Abstract
Open source hardware is an upcoming phenomenon which bears an enormous potential for reframing the social organization of product development and therewith to disrupt conventional industrial practices. The open source movement has not just contributed greatly to the advancement of the internet, renowned open source software projects like the Apache project or Linux project have been accelerated tremendously through company participation while retaining their community structures. This article therefore raises awareness on commonly shared values in the open source hardware (OSH) domain and how to go about managing company participation in open source hardware communities. It addresses some of the most salient aspects of switching from a proprietary logic to an open source paradigm and gives practical advice towards this transition. Therefore, comparisons between the proprietary and the open source logic are drawn along seven themes: co-designing vs. open source product development, global vs. local sourcing, exclusivity vs. reciprocity, mass vs. niche focus, hierarchical vs. self-governed workflows, control vs. self-propelled learning, and company vs. community IT infrastructure. This leads to the identification of practical recommendations for companies interested to engage in open source hardware communities. This guidance will help managers to better navigate their companies within community environments, to identify the kind of contributions they can offer, and ultimately to realize the full potential of synergy advantages.
Robert Mies, Jérémy Bonvoisin, Roland Jochem
Open Source Medical Devices for Innovation, Education and Global Health: Case Study of Open Source Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Abstract
Today’s societies are challenged by the increasing costs of healthcare and global inequality in the availability, accessibility, appropriateness and affordability of medical technologies. There are ways to improve equality and efficiency and decrease costs in this area without fundamentally changing current health systems and business models. Many services and products are experiencing a paradigm shift toward an open source economic model that can be extended to medical technologies in a way that will intrinsically promote sustainable growth and innovations while improving education and global health. This new way of thinking offers an infrastructure by which some sectors of global health can be democratized. Here we present an in-depth discussion of the advantages of open source medical technology for the public and private sectors, then provide a concrete example of the progress of our efforts to develop an open source magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Based on our calculations such an instrument could potentially result in cost savings of up to $3.3 billion within about 20 years for the German healthcare system alone. On a global scale the implications of an affordable open source MRI would be even more striking. We suggest a series of milestones to be met to a widespread development of open source medical technology with the aim of improving global health in a way that is less restricted by current political and economic borders.
Lukas Winter, Ruben Pellicer-Guridi, Lionel Broche, Simone A. Winkler, Henning M. Reimann, Haopeng Han, Felix Arndt, Russ Hodge, Süleyman Günyar, Manuel Moritz, Kate Michi Ettinger, Olivier de Fresnoye, Thoralf Niendorf, Mehdi Benchoufi

Legal Challenges of Co-creation

Frontmatter
Patent Law in the Era of 3D Printing: The Practitioner’s Perspective
Abstract
3D printing has become less costly in the recent past and will be even more affordable in the near future. Thus, a growing number of consumers will be able to (re)produce objects with the help of this technology, using computer-aided design (CAD) files. As this will include patented inventions, patent law will face substantial challenges. With this context in mind, the paper focuses on practitioners’ needs in the digital, especially co-creation, context. First, it introduces the basics on German and European patent law (including the future Unitary patent), with some practical remarks on patent protection. In its main part, the paper focuses on possibly patent infringing actions in the context of 3D printing of products which fall under the subject-matter of patents.
Constantin Blanke-Roeser
Navigating Patents in an Open Hardware Environment
Abstract
In the past few decades the patent environment has grown increasingly opaque and uncertain, to a point where entrepreneurs face a real risk that their products may infringe existing patents. These conditions constitute a source of anxiety for entrepreneurs and tend to place a chill on product innovation and commercialization. In response, various defensive mechanisms have emerged, which are intended to shield companies from the risk of patent infringement. This chapter discusses several of these mechanisms, including defensive publication, patent pledges and open patent agreements. Their legal basis and strategic considerations are examined from the perspective of potential users who are unlikely to build a defensive patent portfolio of their own: start-up entrepreneurs and open innovation communities. While use of these instruments does not achieve full immunity from patent infringement, users may gain freedom to operate for specific products, and thus reduce or even eliminate the risk of patent infringement.
Dana Beldiman, Fabian Fluechter
Managing Content in a Platform Economy: Copyright-Based Approaches to User-Generated-Content
Abstract
The active participation of users in the process of creating and disseminating creative content is one of the fundamental principles characterizing today’s media environment. Especially since digital devices and social media have become available on a broad scale, the role of users has transformed from mere passive recipients to pro-actively engaged ‘prosumers’. From a copyright perspective, prosumer activity is vividly demonstrated in the prevalence of User-Generated-Content (UGC), which describes the phenomenon of users creating and sharing creative content on digital platforms (such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) or contributing to open source projects and wikis for personal, mainly non-commercial purposes. This development has a severe impact on traditional value chains of the creative industry and yields new business models at the same time. Against this background, this paper discusses different options for rightholders to manage their dissemination strategy under the current European copyright framework.
Clemens Appl, Philipp Homar
Overcoming Concerns in Collaborative Transactions
Abstract
Platforms that facilitate the sharing economy promise to help create a circular economy on a peer2peer level. When a consumer is acting as a “prosumer” offering goods or services to a peer, the other party may not profit from consumer protection. This negative consequence of a possible positive development is an incentive for the legislator to start regulating platform activities. This article translates the concerns to a positive platform policy instead.
Rosalie Koolhoven
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Co-Creation
Editors
Tobias Redlich
Manuel Moritz
Jens P. Wulfsberg
Copyright Year
2019
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-97788-1
Print ISBN
978-3-319-97787-4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97788-1