Sticky information – a driver for collaboration ? The case of Chalmers Sport & Technology

Sticky information – a driver for collaboration? The case of Chalmers Sport & Technology Name: Ida Hermanson Affiliation: Textilhögskolan, University of Borås, Sweden Year of enrolment: 2015 Expected final date: 2020 Email: ida.hermansson@hb.se State of the art: Users has for a long time been considered as an important resource to user knowledge (e.g. Burns & Stalker, 1961), feedback and innovation (c.f Hippel, 1988; Shah, 2000). A lead user (Hippel, 1988) is defined as facing needs that will be general in a marketplace and are positioned to benefit significantly by obtaining a solution to those needs (Hippel, 1988; Schweisfurth & Herstatt, 2016). Their technical expertise makes them well suited in development of new functionalities (Mahr & Lievens, 2012) and have a leading role in an important technological market (Hienerth and Lettl, 2017). According to von Hippel (1994), users are particularly more likely to innovate than producers if the knowledge or information of user needs is “sticky” (costly to transfer). Research gap: Hienerth and Lettl (2017) argue that a lead user can be either an individual, an organization (Andersen & Åberg, 2013) and act in networks (Harrison & Waluszewski, 2008; Jeppesen & Laursen, 2009; Mahr & Lievens, 2012). Von Hippel (2007) calls for further studies of the development and management of such networks, as well as for the role of producers within them. Hu (2013, p. 41) argues that a variety of linked actors “can initiate a “lead user” effect and thus increases the rate of adoption” as well as usage innovation. Thus, that it is possible to create lead users by linking actors together. However, so far, few studies have explored the development and dynamics of such lead users. This study concerns the development of a certain collaborative multi-actor network and the roles of different actors (producers and users) in the creation of a lead user effect. The purpose is to contribute to the understanding of collaborative multi-actor networks in user innovation processes. Theoretical argument: Innovation in networks have been explored within various research areas, such as innovation management which argue that innovation is distributed across multiple stakeholders in a value network (Bogers & West, 2012), in sociology which recognize interaction with users as a network rather than individuals (Lundkvist, 2004), and industrial marketing which emphasize the importance of different actor’s roles and the organization of networks (e.g. Håkansson & Ford, 2002; Ingemansson et al., 2009). Each actor has different roles, both as a provider and as a user of resources and these different roles can be translated into different expectations and perceptions about the consequences of alternative solutions (Cantù, Corsaro, & Snehota, 2012). This, in turn, is considered to have an impact on how resources are combined as well as how actors in a network produce and use value (ibid.). Method: This paper is a case study of a Swedish based innovation platform Chalmers Sport and technology. The empirical material consist of 12 interviews transcripts, field notes from 9 participant observations and document studies of 426 newspaper, articles and press from the period 2011-2017. Result: The study illustrates how sticky information can be the basis for collaboration and the driver for innovation projects involving different arenas for user involvement. Four types of arenas (workshops, research projects, education projects, sport event) for user involvement are identified in the case. Furthermore, the study illustrates how sticky information of different actors (e.g. knowledge of certain technology, application and target group) through these arenas are involved in the innovations process and the ways they contribute to the creation of the lead user effect in a market with big potential but small entrance.