The Uses and Risks of Open Innovation
OVERVIEW: Current approaches to open innovation can be characterized in two general categories: open-boundary innovation and open-source innovation. Open-boundary innovation is designed to source new technology and concepts broadly without surrendering control of the innovation process, while open-source innovation is a more radical model that challenges fundamental assumptions about the nature of the corporation. The appropriate corporate response to open-source innovation is difficult to define, as the risks are unknown. However, as open-source movements gather steam, corporate innovators will need to consider whether and how to approach open-source innovation.
A Work-Systems Approach to Classifying Risks in Crowdfunding Platforms: An Exploratory Analysis
Crowdfunding has attracted much attention in the last few years because it has opened up new pathways for projects to obtain financing from individuals who are non-professional investors via the Internet. While risk occupies a central role in crowdfunding, this notion has been an unexplored area in the information systems literature. To close this gap, we contribute to the literature by identifying the main risks in crowdfunding platforms. Using the Work Systems Risk Framework, we analyze main risks in three equity crowdfunding platforms: Crowdfunder, AngelList and Seedrs. Our findings indicate that operational risk, project management risk, cognitive skill risk, IP risk, quality risk, legal risk and vendor relationship risk factors to be important to crowdfunding platforms. Findings from this study are relevant to platform owners and regulators in assessing the risks of crowdfunding platforms.
The Use of Qualitative Information in Macro-Economic Policy Analysis
The majority of macro-economic policy models takes for granted that conflicts among objectives can be assessed by means of a tradeoff analysis. Such tradeoffs imply that sacrifices and benefits of various impacts of decisions can be measured on a cardinal scale, so that a conventional macro-economic utility or welfare analysis can be applied.