Abstract
In this paper, we aim to present a comprehensive analysis on the emerging phenomenon of distributed innovation in commons‐based peer production (CBPP) platforms. Starting with the exploration of the widely held belief on value‐creation confined to industrial settings, we raise several questions regarding the feasibility of, and a need for, an inclusive innovation process that can tap grassroots capacity into both traditional (industrial research and development) and emerging (peer‐to‐peer) innovation models to yield sustainable solutions. In particular, we explore the emergence and structuration of digital innovations in the maker movement, as it presents an alternative construct of innovation wherein access to and sharing of knowledge is predominantly distributed. With innovation outcomes often freely revealed, its very structuration could pose a principal challenge to our conceptualizations of value creation and competitive advantage in the current economic model. Drawing from responses received from 200 collaborative innovation platforms, six semi‐structured interviews focusing on socio‐technical innovation cases, as well as four in‐depth narrative interviews with maker turned entrepreneurs, we present a detailed analysis on the topology of network, typology of actors, as well as the underlying innovation ecosystem in CBPP networks in Germany. In doing so, we contribute to the conceptualization of peer‐to‐peer distributed innovations in collaborative platforms.
Highlights
The idea of commons-based peer production (CBPP) (Benkler, 2007) over the past years has evolved from being a niche individual activity to a widespread global phenomenon
As maker movements grow in number, size and participation across the world (Dougherty & Conrad, 2016), CBPP platforms are playing a heightened role as prefigurative physical spaces where knowledge, tools, artefacts, culture, and values (Ruotsalainen, Karjalainen, Child, & Heinonen, 2017) are incessantly shaped, shared, and exchanged
The aim of this paper is to make a comprehensive analysis on the emerging phenomenon of distributed innovation in CBPP platforms
Summary
The idea of commons-based peer production (CBPP) (Benkler, 2007) over the past years has evolved from being a niche individual activity to a widespread global phenomenon. The rise of the maker culture and the proliferation of collaborative platforms globally have enabled the opening up of the innovation process. Such collaborative platforms are said to have the potential to transform entrepreneurship by acting as intermediaries for organizing value creation (Hagiu & Altman, 2017), wherein user innovation communities are able to produce bottom-up, grassroots innovative solutions to address local needs and challenges (Smith, Fressoli, & Thomas, 2014). Several progressive practices and collaborative models (Kostakis, Niaros, & Giotitsas, 2014) within these emerging structures appear to have the potential to shape new markets (Baldwin & von Hippel, 2011; Rifkin, 2016), revive localized manufacturing and production (Anderson, 2012; Rifkin, 2016), and achieve wider sustainable transformations (Liedtke, Baedeker, Hasselkuß, Rohn, & Grinewitschus, 2015)
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