A case study on the use of community platforms for inter-enterprise innovation

This paper is enshrined in a larger research project which main goal is to determine key factors in the design, implementation and use of collaborative environments for the management of inter-enterprise innovation processes based on practical experiences. The paper presents an innovative approach to address the challenge of collaboration and participation in the submission of new ideas in the front end of the innovation process. The paper describes a case study on the adoption of an open source community platform based on Drupal in the context of a set of cooperative companies within Mondragon Corporation. The platform leverages social computing, real-time Web and semantic technologies to support collaboration, basic technology watch and idea management in the early stages of the innovation process. Preliminary field results show that the platform provides a powerful collaborative tool that eases administration work and enhances collaboration among participants.