Innovation in our modern business world is becoming more and more a process where new knowledge is created through the joint efforts of people from different companies working together. Research shows that companies using so called interorganizational collaboration or co-creation in their innovation process excel in firm innovativeness.
To co-create with other stakeholders means that you need to have a good understanding of the market structure of your industry and how this can change. Further it is important to select the right partner(s) to co-create with. In the past partners were selected mainly on the basis of technical competences and knowledge. Today it is also important that people can work together.
If you are in any way involved in interorganizational collaboration or co-creation to innovate, I found that it is most important to look at myself first. The most creative solutions came from teams where I was open, approachable, authentic and empathetic. It helped if others were doing the same, but if that was not the case my described behaviour created more possibilities to create new ideas and knowledge.
Literature
Alexiev, A. S., Volberda, H. W., & Van den Bosch, F. A. (2016). Interorganizational collaboration and firm innovativeness: Unpacking the role of the organizational environment. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), 974-984.
Kazadi, K., Lievens, A., & Mahr, D. (2016). Stakeholder co-creation during the innovation process: Identifying capabilities for knowledge creation among multiple stakeholders. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), 525-540.
Norbert Bol 