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


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


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?


§  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


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


Open Strategy Initiatives


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


very high

Example WM#3: SOPA/PIPA Protests


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


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.

open strategy-making between crowd and community

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