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Internal crowdsourcing utilizes a firm’s employees, of which many have a strong understanding of the domains in which the firm operates, for contributing with, developing and evaluating ideas. On the one hand, these employees can use their domain-specific knowledge to identify the value of what may seem a far-fetched solution to the average employee. On the other hand, previous research has shown that employees typically evaluate ideas in their domains less favorably if they do not align with ongoing exploitation activities. Hence, this study focuses on whether a higher degree of relevant domain-specific knowledge makes employees participating in internal crowdsourcing prefer exploitative solutions when evaluating ideas. An empirical study of an online platform for firm-internal innovation in a multinational engineering company showed that employees who only infrequently participated in internal crowdsourcing mostly contributed to and evaluated ideas within their own domain. Employees who frequently participated also contributed to and evaluated ideas outside their own domains. By statistically analyzing group differences during idea evaluation, we show that employees participating infrequently favor exploitable solutions, whereas employees participating frequently are more uncertain. The former difference is only seen concerning ideas that require domain-specific knowledge to understand, but the latter is observed for all types of ideas. This study makes three substantial contributions. First, employees with domain-specific knowledge, through their preference for exploitative solutions, bias the outcome of internal crowdsourcing when idea evaluation requires domain-specific knowledge. Second, this bias is aggravated by the overall higher level of uncertainty displayed by employees participating frequently in internal crowdsourcing and thereby tend to reach out to other domains. Third, in order to mitigate this, bias management can build engagement in internal crowdsourcing through idea challenges that do not require domain-specific knowledge and consider avoiding employees with a strongly associated domain knowledge for idea evaluation. QC 20211129

Needs for new engineering methodologies, curriculum renewal, and new forms of education and training arise, as Cyber-Physical Systems are becoming smarter, more automated, connected and collaborative. In this setting, the use of competence networks, i.e. non-profit collaborations between industry and academia aiming to promote learning and knowledge creation, stands out as a promising approach. Drawing upon experiences from the Innovative Center for Embedded Systems, a KTH-Industry cross-disciplinary and multidomain competence network for students, practicing engineers, managers, and academic faculty, we describe and reflect on challenges and lessons learnt during the 11 years of operation of the ICES network. The findings support a need to emphasize knowledge sharing and exchange encompassing multiple disciplines and cross-domain industrial experience. A competence network acts as a social network that facilitates communication, learning and knowledge creation for both individuals and organizations. Competence networks can thus act as tools for policy makers, creating incentives for life-long learning inside companies. A focused engagement and activities directed towards stakeholders help to establish trust, providing potential for agile and persevering forms of cooperation. QC 20200818

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are evolving to become more intelligent, autonomous and collaborating, playing an important role in societal infrastructure. The amount of knowledge required in developing and managing future CPS will be unprecedented, leading to stronger needs for collaboration, competence provisioning, continuous learning and renewal of education. This is where “competence” (or learning) “networks” involving academia and industry play an important role. We elaborate and discuss needs, lessons learnt and challenges for such competence networks in the context of CPS. We draw upon our experiences gained from ICES - the KTH-industry cross-disciplinary and multi-domain competence network which in 2019 has been operational for 11 years, growing from 6 to more than 30 participating organizations. The ICES network focuses on activities to support students, industrial engineers and managers, and academic faculty, acting as a network, catalyst and competence provider directed towards these stakeholders. We elaborate challenges faced during the operation of ICES including the lack of prioritization of competence networks and education, the paradox with strong needs for competence networks but perceived lack of time, the challenges of reaching out to stakeholders, and fragmented efforts addressing competence provisioning. We finally discuss ways forward. In conclusion, we believe that the ICES type of network could be relevant in many other areas characterized by complex systems. QC 20200611