Rattenberger, J. (2013). How an organization binds external experts on a more sustainable basis [Master Thesis, Technische Universität Wien]. reposiTUm. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12708/159205
"In recent years there is a shift in seeing customers, user and other external experts as partners to generate knowledge relevant to innovation, opening up internal innovation processes. This allows to access a vast potential of solution knowledge available in the external business environment. Advantages of building up long-term relationships with experts according to (Berger & Lettl, 2013) are that continuous collaboration enables to build up trust and with that enhances the transfer of tacit and key knowledge which are crucial ingredients for truly innovative solutions. Further a sustainable partnership enables a company to leverage the creative potential, knowledge and status of experts in all stages of the innovation process. Especially non-profit service organizations wish to deliver a great service experience, but have a very low-cost innovation process, consequently focusing on internal (and often mostly incremental) innovation. Why people join in open innovation processes is strongly influenced by different motivations. Open innovation projects performed by companies risk failure if participants' expectations are not addressed. The open innovation literature is discussing many factors influencing the motivation of the participants. Focusing on open service innovation literature, the question is asked how motivational, trust and fairness framework conditions and the expectation of incentives impact external experts in an open service innovation process and consequently a sustainable binding of these external experts to a company."
