Prof. Sheen S. Levine
Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (Columbia University_
Thursday, April 10, 2014
11:30 – 13:00
Room Beijing 1, Skolkovo School of Management, China cluster
ABSTRACT:
The principles of open collaboration for innovation, once distinctive to open source software, are now found in many other ventures. Some of these ventures are Internet based: for example, Wikipedia and online communities. Others are off-line: they are found in medicine, science, and everyday life. Such ventures have been affecting traditional firms and may represent a new organizational form. Despite the impact of such ventures, their operating principles and performance are not well understood. Here we define open collaboration (OC), the underlying set of principles, and propose that it is a robust engine for innovation and production. First, we review multiple OC ventures and identify four defining principles. In all instances, participants create goods and services of economic value, they exchange and reuse each other’s work, they labor purposefully with just loose coordination, and they permit anyone to contribute and consume. These principles distinguish OC from other organizational forms, such as firms or cooperatives. Next, we turn to performance. We identify and investigate three elements that affect performance: the cooperativeness of participants, the diversity of their needs, and the degree to which the goods are rival. We find that OC performs well even in seemingly harsh environments: when cooperators are a minority, free riders are present, diversity is lacking, or goods are rival. We conclude that OC is viable and likely to expand into new domains.
SPEAKER INTRODUCTION:
Sheen S. Levine earned his Ph.D at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. There he began linking micro and macro—asking how people’s decisions and interaction affect firms, markets, and greater society. Now part of the behavioral strategy field, he answers such questions by collaborating with organizational theorists, economists, sociologists, and psychol- ogists, employing modeling, experiments, and fieldwork. His research has been cited by scholars in business, sociology, psychology and economics. It has also been relied upon in computer science, physics and mathematics. He taught business strategy, global strategic management, organizational theory and corporate social responsibility to undergraduate, graduate and executive audiences in the US, Europe and Asia. Levine also serves as a senior editor of Management and Organization Review.
