Managing Online Users in Open Innovation : The Case of a Nordic Telecom Company

The purpose of the paper is to report a case study of management challenges and appropriate management competences when implementing an online user innovation tool. The case study illustrates a theoretically derived framework of the management competences related to online innovation tools. The case study and the framework identify three main types of management competences and related practices: a) disclosure competence in order to find, direct and motivate users to contribute; b) appropriation competence in order to capture users' contributions and; c) integration competence in order to direct, transfer and assimilate user contributions in an organization. The case study provides a managerially relevant view of the interaction between external sourcing of knowledge and necessary internal management competences to successfully involve users through an online innovation tool