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.