Socio-Economic Impact of Open Innovation 2.0

To understand and assess the socio-economic impact of the Open Innovation 2.0 it is important

1. for the communities in making decisions that promote long-term sustainability, including economic prosperity, employment, a healthy community, and social well-being;
2. for the market in creating new products or services considering the users’ needs; and
3. for the policy makers in creating new policies for citizens’ and businesses’ welfare, and sustainable government.

Communities/Users/Citizens Perspective

The communities/users decide the real value of the Open Innovation 2.0. Nowadays the citizens are more “open” in participating in decision making on their economic and social prosperity. The communities are well aware of the real impact on their social and economic life, while they can influence in political decisions or creation of services  for the market. The citizen/user is now an integral part of the innovation process, who can make real change. In the innovation participation process, the rise of the new communities that takes Open Innovation 2.0 as the baseline has an impact on society.

There are many opportunities once the worlds of information, monitoring and communication have been brought together. Sharing content and creativity through the Internet will create new and better work/life balances for citizens: wherever and whenever. Wearable technologies supported by Internet coaching will create well-being lifestyles for young people and the elderly. The healthcare costs will be controlled through communication as needed. Sustainable energy, sustainable water and sustainable material use will become essential part of citizens daily practices. 

Market Perspective

Businesses want to grow and reach sustainability in the market. With advances of the global information and communication technologies, the processes and practices of creating innovative product or service are evolving at an increasingly rapid pace. The innovation in product, service or delivery must raise and create value for the market, while simultaneously reducing or eliminating features or services that are less valued by the current or future market. Industry/market is well aware that it is not possible anymore to create new services alone, isolated from the rest of the world and “force” the users to adopt or buy these created services. Otherwise, it will result waste of time and resources, as the buyers will not be interested in using these services.  As a part of the Open Innovation 2.0 ecosystem, industry/business/service providers become more “open” engaging the “buyers” or “users” in the co-creation of services. The users can be both consumers and innovators/participants, given all of the supporting conditions. At the same time market operates within the boundaries of regulations created by the governments. Open Innovation 2.0 approaches allow the industry to influence in the regulatory decisions adapting them into the dynamic market needs.  Businesses will grow in more sustainable manner with support of the other ecosystem participants. 

Policy makers Perspective

Over the last decades political approach and more importantly, the political mindset about innovation has drastically changed. In particular, today the political leaders believe that successful innovation is accelerated when a wider spectrum stakeholders participates, thus applying Open Innovation 2.0 approach, therefore creating  better value for the wellbeing of the citizens and businesses.

From the world political leaders:

• On Dec 3, 2010, Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Digital Agenda gave speech: “Unlocking the digital future through Open Innovation” during the 4th pan- European Intellectual Property Summit, where she clearly stated that openness is central to succeed in this digital revolution and that we should create maximum room for user-driven innovation [1]
• On May 9, 2013, Barack Obama, the president of the United States of America, in his opening speech of expanding manufacturing innovation centres, he stated: “We are seeing the pooling of research, of risk and the potential for breakthrough in manufacturing technology that only happen when we bring everyone together”. [2]

In the core of the policy makers is to make the citizens “happy” in their ways of living, create sustainable government where the citizens can prosper, create welfare for the businesses to grow and create jobs for the communities. The sustainability of the government lays on the wellbeing and “happiness” of the citizens and businesses.        

The efficient interaction and collaboration among the three: (1) the communities/users, (2) the market and (3)the policy makers, should meet in order to secure maximum economic and social impact for all the stakeholders involved in Open Innovation 2.0 ecosystem. Collaborative skills, shares ideas, values and processes need to be in place to make the collaboration efficient, and generate wealth for the society, market and the governments. The key driver and enabler of these is the ICT: information and communication technology. 

In the past years considerable attention is drawn to this topic  trying to solve the issue of the effective (Open) Innovation (2.0)  ecosystem to reach maximum societal impact. Most of the studies offer models, methods and approaches to assess the impact or to create value for the exosystem participants. Other studies also offer concrete actions to reach results. For example, “OSI: Socio-Economic Impact of Open Service Innovation” study supported by the European Commission [3] offers both  models and actions.

Despite the fact that individuals, market and the politicians share this vision of the effective Open Innovation 2.0 ecosystem, the practical actions are still too slow.  At least, we have not seen strong evidences yet that in the practical level it is happening. In the meantime, due to rapid digital revolution,  new studies appear offering new actions for solutions, while the previous offerings of actions are not even being tested.  Despite the awareness of this vision of the societal impact, the Open Innovation 2.0 ecosystem participants are still too slow to make decisions on their interference.

It’s the Fear for change,  failure, uncertainties and impossibility, which hold the parties back to make decisions and actually do it.

Failure should be seen as opportunity for getting stronger, creating better solutions, better lifestyle and better governments. Change is the only constant in life. So, better to learn to embrace, enjoy change and turn it into welfare.  Uncertainties are the mysteries for the future, that one can discover more opportunities for wellbeing. To paraphrase Nelson Mandela: “It always seems impossible until it’s done” [4].  Urgent actions are needed to move from vision into action. Quick decisions should be made by all the parties (individuals, markets and governments) to be able to enjoy “the fruits” of the shared values accelerated by the Open Innovation 2.0. To overcome the Fear new “experimental” and “risk taking” mindset is needed, as on the one hand, failure is natural in experiments and, on the other hand, experiments can be a start of something big, desirable and important. Think about of a start of shared values in an exclusive society, market, economy and government, driven by Open Innovation 2.0. Now let’s do it!

References

[1] Kroes, N. Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda: speech: “Unlocking the digital future though Open Innovation” during the 4th pan-European Intellectual Property Summit

 [2] Obama, B. 2009. A Strategy for American Innovation: Driving Towards Sustainable Growth and Quality Jobs. Report from the White House, Washington, D.C.

 [3] OSI Consortium 2011, OSI: Socio-Economic Impact of Open Service Innovation. http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=7195

[4] Mandela N., Famous quotes