Enhancing Open Innovation Through Modelling and Utilizing Knowledge on Coalition Formation

In an open innovation environment, organizational learning takes place by means of dispersed teams which expand their knowledge through collaborative idea generation. Research is often focused on finding ways to extend the set of ideas, while the main problem in our opinion is the quality of the ideas that are accepted, rather than the number of ideas that is generated. When selecting ideas, coalitions form due to a variety of individual and group problems and the composition of these coalitions may influence the quality of the set of ideas that is accepted. In our view, coalition formation as one of the major influencing factors for effective co-creativity is underestimated. Hence, we should look into what factors influence coalition formation during idea generation and idea selection. After doing so, we will model the main influencing variables and design a model for simulation of a multi-agent environment. The influencing factors will aid in definition of a Shapley value and the nucleolus to empower the participant in making a decision on coalition formation during co-creativity. Game theoretic approaches have proven to be useful in the analysis of formation of coalitions, trust, negotiation and competition among participants of a group and the enhancement of group processes.