Innovation Contests - Where are we?

Innovation contests in their basic structure have a long-standing tradition and can be attributed to continuously gain in importance as a corporate practice. A deep understanding of this online instrument, however, is still lacking. Contrary to other methods used to realize open innovation, research in the field of online innovation contests displays a growing, but only rudimentarily intertwined body of publications. This paper provides the essential systematization of the field, integrating both, academic knowledge and business deployment. Juxtaposing 33 relevant journal and conference publications with empirical basis and an analysis of 57 real-world innovation contests, we highlight interesting disruptions and distill six pathways for future research. These cover the optimal degree of elaboration, the interplay of competition and community, the importance of community applications, the trajectory towards open evaluation, and the identification of additional design elements.