Innovation Contests: How to Design for Successful Idea Selection

Abstract

Innovation contests provide several benefits, but many organizations struggle with managing emergent challenges that occur during the idea selection process. This paper builds on qualitative interviews, where practitioners shared their experiences with managing innovation contests. Across the 13 contest domains studied in 31 cases, we identified five frequently occurring contest goals: (1) promote entrepreneurship, (2) collect innovative ideas, (3) elevate awareness, (4) explore market opportunities, and (5) find talent that influence the design of the selection process. Moreover, for five common emergent challenges we identified how practitioners apply manual and IT-enabled coping strategies, which can be associated with three design elements, i.e., the (1) ideas for the innovation, the (2) raters of the ideas, and the (3) duration of the selection process. These findings are summarized in a guiding framework that helps practitioners design, navigate, and manage the complex process of idea selection.