AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

This thesis applies and develops digital open innovation research methods and thereby attempts to broaden the understanding in this emerging field. Three digital methods to foster open innovation are examined. Netnography and social media monitoring are introduced as innovative research approaches to extract and use online community dialogue for market research, marketing and product development. In addition, the development, demonstration and presentation of a novel methodological approach to Delphi (Open Delphi), incorporating an open innovation element in form of an Online Research Community in the last Delphi round, complements the set of digital open innovation research techniques available. Findings indicate that netnography and social media monitoring are suitable methods to aggregate in-depth consumer insights (netnography) and a holistic representative picture (social media monitoring) of their explicit and implicit needs, problems and solutions. A literature analysis on netnography showed an exponential increase of publications over time in a great variety of research areas, which reflects the increasing scientific interest in this emerging technique. Given the growth of social media it can be expected that netnography and social media monitoring will become more important for the future of market research. Similarly, the developed Open Delphi approach was able to a produce meaningful insights and foresight of the subject under investigation from an expert view. The combination of traditional and new techniques enhanced the Delphi method and improved output quality and process efficiency, facilitated consensus reaching, increased convenience for and motivation of the participants. Following the suggested guidelines many other researchers can re-apply and adopt this method for various kinds of investigations, provided that some adjustments, modifications as well as tests are undertaken.