open strategy-making between crowd and community

Open Strategy-making Between Crowd and Community

Lessons from Wikimedia and Creative Commons

Conference “Organizing Crowds & Innovation“ Saïd Business School & Nuffield College, University of Oxford

October 30-31, 2015

Leonhard Dobusch Freie Universität Berlin

Jakob Kapeller Johannes Kepler University Linz

From Open Innovation…

§  Organizations increasingly rely on contributions by external actors in innovation and beyond (e.g. Baldwin & von Hippel, 2011; Dell’Era & Verganti, 2010; O’Mahony & Ferraro, 2007)

§  Open innovation is an ‘open strategy’ but

not open strategy-making (Chesbrough & Appleyard, 2007; Whittington et al. 2011)

>> strategically relevant ideas from external actors in open innovation processes (e.g. Bayus 2013; Yoo et al. 2012)

Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

…to Open Strategy-making

§  Organizations invite external actors to participate in strategy-making processes (Doz & Kosonen, 2008; Matzler et al. 2014)

§  Particularly important for organizations that already

rely on external crowds and communities

>> open strategy-making with different types of external actors

Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

Crowd! Community!

Public tasks of surveying and classify craters on Mars. Kanefsky et al., 2001"

Community structure of modules in the apache project González-Barahona et al., 2004"

Examples from: Müller-Birn, C.: How applicable are conditions for success in online peer-production communities for scientific communities? Invited Talk. Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance, 11/2012

Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

Members interact and self-identify as members (Jarvenpaa & Lang, 2011; O’Mahony, 2007; O’Mahony & Lakhani, 2012)

Members share a common practice in isolation (Bonabeau, 2009; Jeppesen & Lakhani, 2010; Surowiecki, 2004)

Research Question

How do organizations that rely on contributions by crowds and communities perform open strategy-making?

Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

§  U.S. Non-Profit with network of 100+ affiliate organizations

§  Provides set of alternative copyright licenses

§  Community of copyright lawyers

§  Crowd of Creative Commons license users

§  U.S. charitable organization with network of 40+ chapter associations

§  Provides infrastructure for Wikipedia, Wiktionary, etc.

§  Community of volunteer contributors („Wikipedians“)

§  Crowd of Wikipedia readers

Case Comparison

Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

Data: ~100 semi-structured interviews, mailing-lists, wikis and websites

Community of Wikipedians

Wikimedia

Crowd of Creative Commons license users

Creative Commons

formal organization community

Crowd of Wikipedia readers

crowd

Community of copyright lawyers

Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

Open Strategy Initiatives

Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

2001 2002 2003 2005 2006 2007 2008 2010 2009

Initiative CC#2: Defining NC Initiative CC#1: Explaining NC

2004 2011

Initiative CC#3: Versioning NC

2012

Initiative WM#2:

Strategy Process

Initiative WM#1:

Relicensing

Initiative WM#3: SOPA/PIPA

Protest

Foundation of Creative Commons

Foundation of Wikipedia

Foundation of Wikimedia

Launch of CC licenses 1.0

Data set CC1: 52 interviews

Strategy initiative CC#1: Explaining NC

Case Selection Categorization Data Sets Strategy Practices

Data set CC2: 2 mailing-lists

Strategy initiative CC#2: Defining NC

Reporting practices -  Collecting opinions from

external actors -  Collecting suggestions

Democratic practices -  Registering voters -  Voting

Exclusive practices -  Condensing suggestions and

communicating decisions

Data set CC3: website/wiki pages

Strategy initiative CC#3: Versioning NC

Data set WM1: 47 interviews

Strategy initiative WM#1: Re-licensing

Strategy initiative WM#2: Strategy process

Data set WM3: website/wiki pages

Strategy initiative WM#3: SOPA/PIPA protest

Cre

ativ

e C

omm

ons

Wik

imed

ia

Data set WM2: 1 mailing-list

Reviewing practices -  Reporting of and exchange

on different interpretations and applications

-  Negotiating interpretations and objectives

-  Discussing suggestions -  Petitioning

Open Strategy-making Practices Emerging open strategy-making practices

Practice category Description Degree of

Openness -- Condensing suggestions and communicating decisions

Exclusive practices

Centralized strategizing very low

-- Collecting opinions from external actors -- Collecting suggestions

Reporting practices

unidirectional provision of inputs

-- Reporting of and exchange on different interpretations and applications -- Negotiating interpretations and objectives -- Discussing suggestions -- Petitioning

Reviewing practices

interactive discourse on strategy-making

-- Registering voters -- Voting

Democratic practices

transfer of decision power to external actors

Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

very high

Example WM#3: SOPA/PIPA Protests

Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

§  Reporting: proposals for protest activities §  Reviewing: discussions on Wikipedia §  Democratic: publicly support or oppose §  Exclusive: definite decision made by HQ

Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

Crowds and Communities in a Continuum of Openness in Strategy-making

Discussion & Conclusion

Greater variety of strategy-making practices: §  Intensified interaction but also loss of control §  Different practices with crowds and communities

Variants of closure in open strategy-making: §  Mostly: exclusive practices for decision-making… §  …but also: democratic practices as alternatives Communities actively seek participation: §  Interlinking actors to transform crowds in

communities? Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller

Thank you.