Role Confusion in Open Innovation Intermediary Arenas

Book chapter, 2011

Intermediaries have become an increasingly important part of innovation collaboration arrangements such as open innovation. Much attention has been given to structural arrangements for open innovation, but less interest has been given to how people experience the participation in open innovation work. This chapter is based on a longitudinal case study of SAFER, an open innovation intermediary arena for research on traffic and vehicle safety. It investigates how participants in this arena experience their situation as they spend time on things typically "outside" their tasks in their home organizations. The study provides insight into the tensions and confusion that the participants experience in their work, as they constantly need to renegotiate their positions both within their home organizations, and in the relation to the intermediary arena and the other organizations.