Relationship Between Knowledge Creation and Open Innovation Applied Through Public Open Innovation Platforms

Abstract

Public online open innovation (OI) platforms, widely used across countries, allow communities to participate in OI
processes by sharing innovative ideas about specific problems. Knowledge creation and OI are related. To implement an
innovative solution, new knowledge must be created. Previous studies have discussed knowledge creation and OI in the
context of organisational teams in business, but knowledge creation by communities in the context of public OI platforms
has received little attention. The socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation (SECI) model is a well-known
model that embodies the knowledge-creation process. The OI process involves determining community needs, identifying
themes, identifying a community problem, posting that problem on a platform, sharing innovative ideas for solutions,
selecting the best solutions and implementing and diffusing the solution to the community. This study applied a multi-case
approach to investigate how knowledge was created by communities through an OI process based on the SECI model. Data
were collected by conducting in-depth interviews with leaders of two different OI platforms in two countries. Deductive
analysis was utilised to clarify the OI process used by each platform and the relationship between the processes and the SECI
model. The findings revealed that the OI process applied by public OI platforms follows the SECI structure. This means that
innovative solutions created by communities represent tacit knowledge, which is turned into explicit knowledge and then
becomes tacit knowledge again. The developed conceptual framework can facilitate the application of OI through the
knowledge creation model and enhance understanding of community knowledge creation