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Overview: Eric von Hippel, a leading researcher in the field of user innovation, gave the Annual Knowledge and Innovation Foundational Scholar interview during the Strategic Management Society's 42nd Annual Conference held in London, Sept 17–20, 2022. This article is an edited transcript of that interview in which von Hippel provides insights into his research journey and perspectives on the importance of user innovation. He defines user innovation as the process by which individuals or firms create new products, services, or behaviors for their own use rather than for sale, and contrasts it with producer innovation. This type of innovation can occur in various contexts and can range from small modifications to existing products to the development of entirely new offerings. von Hippel also discusses the strategy-related implications of this distinction and highlights the growing area of research and practice in user innovation. Finally, he reflects on his own experiences with user innovation and provides thoughts on the intriguing issues future research in this field should address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management research has increasingly explored the domains of ecosystems, platforms, and open/user/distributed innovation--governance structures focused on engaging with external communities. While these research areas include substantial empirical and theoretical work and share notable similarities, the literature streams have evolved separately, limiting our ability to understand underlying mechanisms and dynamics. We comprehensively review these distinct literatures to highlight commonalities and induce novel insights. We introduce the overarching concept of the "managed ecosystem" governance structure through which an organization engages external communities for value creation and capture such that the locus of activity resides outside organizational boundaries while the locus of control remains within the organization. It represents a "translucent hand" between the invisible hand of the market and visible hand of the organizational hierarchy. Because the extant literature only lightly addresses incumbent organizations transitioning to these models and rarely touches upon those operating with multiple governance structures simultaneously, we further review and synthesize research on organizational adaptation and ambidexterity. From this integrative review, we identify capabilities to execute managed ecosystems, including "shepherding communities without exploiting them," "managing data and intellectual property," "ecosystem-driven open adaptation," and "ambidextrous governance." We additionally present opportunities for future research across these research domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]