Contests as innovation intermediaries in open data markets

Abstract

Innovation contests are becoming popular instruments for stimulating development of digital services using open data. However, experience indicates that only a limited number of the results developed during these events become viable digital services attracting a significant user base. To further deepen our understanding of the role, design and function of innovation contests in open data markets, we conducted a survey of the websites of 33 digital innovation contests. The results of the survey show that organizers design digital innovation contests to function as intermediaries for open data innovation. By analyzing the activities performed by organizers we found several examples of how innovation contests support the participants in designing, implementing and providing services after the contests are concluded. We contribute with a key design element and attributes for the post-contest process of digital innovation contests, which adds to existing key design elements. For future research we suggest to further study open data markets and the intermediary role of digital innovation contests. Moreover we propose to develop guidelines and tools for organizers of digital innovation contests to design contests that better meet the needs of a particular open data market.