TY - JOUR T1 - Integrating Open Innovation Platforms in Public Sector Decision Making: Empirical Results from Smart City Research JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2016 A1 - Jukka Ojasalo A1 - Lassi Tähtinen KW - collaborative innovation KW - innovation intermediary KW - open innovation platform KW - public decision making KW - smart city AB - The purpose of this article is to increase knowledge of integrating an open innovation platform into public sector decision-making processes. Many of the distinctive characteristics of public sector decision-making processes pose a challenge for innovation collaboration with external actors. Often, external actors are not aware of these distinctive characteristics, or they find it very difficult to adapt to them. Particularly SMEs and startups find it difficult to adjust their operation to public sector decision-making processes. The existing literature includes very little knowledge of how such an innovation platform, which is an intermediary between a city and external actors, relates to the city’s decision-making processes. Still, this is an important issue considering the prerequisites of the success of an innovation platform. This qualitative explorative study is based on data from in-depth interviews and co-creative multi-actor workshops with participants from city governments and other organizations. It proposes a model of open innovation platform for public sector decision making in a city. The article contributes to the literature dealing with innovation intermediaries as well as public sector decision making in enhancement of innovation. It identifies and introduces three different kinds of relationships that are present and partly interwoven in open innovation platforms and intermediary organizations: governing, sparring, and collaborative. The prosed model shows a practical way of organizing the three types of relationships of an innovation platform with the city’s decision making and external actors. The model also helps in combining different decision-making cultures between the public, private, and third sectors in the context of collaborative innovation. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 6 UR - http://timreview.ca/article/1040 IS - 12 U1 - Laurea University of Applied Sciences Jukka Ojasalo is a Professor and current Head of the Master of Business Administration Degree Programme at Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Finland and Adjunct Professor at Aalto University School of Business and Helsinki University Faculty of Social Sciences. He completed his PhD at Hanken Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration in Helsinki, Finland in 1999. Previously, he was Professor of Marketing at Lappeenranta University of Technology as well as at Turku School of Economics and Business Administration. Prior to his academic career, he worked for several years in the IT industry and for the Finnish government. He has published two textbooks and many articles on service, customer relationships, networks, and innovation. U2 - Laurea University of Applied Sciences Lassi Tähtinen is a Research Assistant at Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Finland, where he holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Management. As described in this study, his current research is focused on a project aimed at developing a framework for an open innovation platform/intermediary between a smart city and the private sector/third sector. ER -