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R EV I S E D : N O V E M B ER 1 4 , 2 0 1 8

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TEACHING NOTE

Innovation Simulation:
Breaking News
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This guide was prepared by Northeastern University D’Amore-McKim School of Business Professor Tucker Marion and Babson College
Professor Sebastian Fixson for the sole purpose of aiding classroom instructors in the use of the Innovation Simulation: Breaking News (HBP No.
8675). The guide and the simulation are developed solely as the basis for class discussion and are not intended to serve as endorsements,
sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management.
Copyright © 2017 Harvard Business School Publishing. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1–800–545–7685,
write Harvard Business Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to [Link] No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business Publishing.
Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.
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 Table of Contents

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Quick Start Guide ................................................................................................................................... 4

Key Information ......................................................................................................................................... 4

Running the Simulation ............................................................................................................................. 4

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Learn More ................................................................................................................................................ 4
Getting Started.............................................................................................................................................. 5
Teaching Note ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Overview .................................................................................................................................................... 5

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Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 5
Synopsis .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Teaching Objectives ................................................................................................................................... 6
The Student Experience ................................................................................................................................ 7
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Overview .................................................................................................................................................... 7
Simulation Model ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Successful Student Strategies .................................................................................................................. 11
Innovation Modes Can Be Effectively Used Together .......................................................................... 12
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There Is More than One Way to Complete the Challenge ................................................................... 12

Open Innovation Is an Effective and Efficient Source of Ideas............................................................. 13
Expertise Is Still Important ................................................................................................................... 13
Early Validation Is Important to the Process ........................................................................................ 13
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Suggested Uses ........................................................................................................................................ 13

Course Fit and Position......................................................................................................................... 13
Teaching Plan........................................................................................................................................ 14
Critical Takeaways ................................................................................................................................ 16
Suggested Discussion Questions ............................................................................................................. 17
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Theories on Innovation............................................................................................................................ 17
Detailed Model Explanation........................................................................................................................ 21

Technical Guide................................................................................................................................... 23

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 Adopting the Simulation and Enabling Student Access........................................................................... 23

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Help Resources ..................................................................................................................................... 24
Simulation Overview ................................................................................................................................... 25
Student User Screens .............................................................................................................................. 25
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 25

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Tutorial Mode ....................................................................................................................................... 26
Mandate Page ...................................................................................................................................... 28
Background Page .................................................................................................................................. 28
Initiatives Page ..................................................................................................................................... 30

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Ideas Page............................................................................................................................................. 33
Results Page.......................................................................................................................................... 41
Faculty Administration Screens ............................................................................................................... 44
Simulation Setup .................................................................................................................................. 44
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Class Summary...................................................................................................................................... 46
Facilitator Materials ............................................................................................................................. 47
Appendices.................................................................................................................................................. 48
Appendix A: Mandate Text ...................................................................................................................... 48
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Appendix B: Complete Idea List ............................................................................................................... 50

Appendix C: Initiatives and Testing ......................................................................................................... 54
Appendix D: Initiatives and Associated Mode ......................................................................................... 54
Appendix E: Idea Distributions for Each Initiative and Mandate ............................................................ 55
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Appendix E: Supplemental Materials ...................................................................................................... 56

Appendix F: Release Notes ...................................................................................................................... 57
Endnotes .................................................................................................................................................. 57
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 QUICK START GUIDE TEACHING NOTE TECHNICAL GUIDE APPENDICES

Quick Start Guide

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Key Information
Author Tucker Marion and Sebastian Fixson

Players/Scenarios/Roles Single player, multiple scenarios

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Asynchronous Play? Yes

In-Class or Out-of-Class Play Either

Teaching Points Multiple modes of innovation; open innovation; phases/activities inside of innovation
processes; idea generation; idea selection; incentives for innovation; role of organizational
context for innovation

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Target Audience Undergraduate, graduate, or executive students in any course where the above subjects are
taught

Accompanying/ Teaching Note; Debrief Slides

Supplemental Material

Approximate Time Simulation Play: 20–30 minutes Debrief: 20–30 minutes

Required
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Running the Simulation
Technical specifications for this simulation can be found here: (A) Technical Specifications, (B) System Check. The typical steps
for setting up and running this simulation are as follows:
1. In the simulation setup tab, click “Set up a new run.” The class can play multiple runs of the simulation, but only one at
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a time.
2. Ensure all students are populated into the simulation.
3. Choose the scenario(s) (mandates) to which different students will be randomly assigned.
4. Auto-assign students to the chosen scenarios.
5. Open the simulation for play. When students are finished playing, begin the debrief.
6. Optional: To allow students to replay their currently assigned scenario multiple times without saving their results. Only
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the first run will be recorded for the facilitator to view, and students will not be able to see or return to their original
results. It is recommended to select this option only after the simulation debrief.
7. To allow students to play again, with a new scenario or scenarios, repeat the above steps.

See also: Technical Guide

Learn More
To learn more about this simulation, carefully review the Teaching Note and take advantage of any or all of the following
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resources:
• Free trial • Webinar recording
• Simulation preview • Information sheet
• Instructional videos • Web tour

For these and other resources visit: [Link]

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Getting Started

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This teaching note is designed for instructors using Innovation Simulation: Breaking News (HBP No. 8675).

• The Teaching Note section gives specific information related to the learning objectives and
teaching opportunities inherent in the simulation.

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• The Technical Guide section reviews the process by which a faculty member adopts the simulation
through the Harvard Business for Educators website and extends that access to students.

• The Simulation Overview section provides screenshots and description of user and administrative
screens.

• The Appendices section provides further information about the simulation as well as supplemental

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reading suggestions.

Teaching Note
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Overview
This note provides an overview of the simulation and outlines its technical requirements. We then review
in detail the various tasks and challenges posed to students. We provide details about the learning
objectives, the types of analyses that students are expected to perform, and the conclusions at which they
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are likely to arrive (using the tools and information available to them as part of the simulation). We also
discuss how to customize the simulation, prepare for class, and facilitate the debriefing session.

This teaching note was last updated on November 14, 2018. For detailed release notes, see Appendix F:
Release Notes.
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Introduction
Synopsis

This online simulation provides students with an opportunity to play the role of a product manager
within a struggling newspaper company, The Citizen Sun. Students are tasked by the CEO to design and
execute an innovation effort to produce a new idea to solve a specific problem. The simulation begins
with the students receiving a mandate from the CEO to develop ideas to counter a situation of declining
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sales, subscriptions, and web traffic.

The simulation contains four versions of this mandate (see Appendix A), representing different levels
of risk-tolerance within the organization (high or low), and the specificity of the problem (wide open or
narrow-specific). Students do not know which mandate they are encountering; they do not even know
that different levels can exist. The instructor can assign the mandates randomly, and in the debriefing

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session show how the different starting conditions can lead to different innovator behavior and
ultimately to different outcomes.

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Attached to the charge comes a budget, in time and monetary resources. The student in his or her role
as product manager next chooses one or more initiatives from a set of initiatives for idea generation. For
example, the student might choose to meet in person with long time subscribers, to run an innovation
contest on the newspapers website, kick off a project with a local design innovation firm, or run an idea

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hackathon at a local startup event. Each initiative comes with its own cost and requires a certain amount
of time to execute. The detailed outcome of each initiative is not exactly known ex ante, but the students
are provided with several parameters of the underlying distribution. This choice is motivated by the
recognition of innovation as a stochastic process, which allows to manipulate one’s chances, but not to
guarantee specific outcomes.

Each initiative then delivers a subset of potential solutions, generated from a large pool of ideas

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representing the “universe” of possible ideas (see Appendix B). Each idea comes with a series of metrics
attached—the idea profile. These metrics consider innovativeness, risk level, cost to implement, and time
to implement. Some initiatives produce ideas that display those metrics immediately (such as initiatives
involving utilizing more specialized options, such as using a design innovation firm), while in other cases
the student may need to perform testing on the idea to reveal those metrics (see Appendix C). As long as
they have time and money in their budget, the students can then engage in another initiative of their
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choosing.

Students may conduct another initiative until either time or money, or both, is exhausted, then
students must submit what they consider the best and most appropriate idea that meets the directive of
the mandate. How the submitted idea is perceived by the superior depends on the context of the original
mandate provided.
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Teaching Objectives
After playing this simulation, students should be able to

• Understand the challenges of innovation and describe a range of options available to source and
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develop high-quality ideas.

• Summarize how to use different modes of innovation to better inform the innovation process.

• Describe the potential of open innovation efforts to seed the innovation funnel and develop
solutions.

• Assess how important organizational climate and scope are for setting the direction and tone of the
innovation process.
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The purpose of this simulation is fourfold. First and foremost, students are exposed to the challenges
of innovation management, and the uncertainty that comes with them. Experiencing innovation as a
stochastic process is a key learning point of this simulation.

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Second, students will experience the variety of options available to innovation managers to source
knowledge and information in order to develop ideas of high quality. These innovation modes span

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internal resources and initiatives such as internal innovation contests, to outside expertise such as
consultants and design firms, to external open innovation efforts. Each of these initiatives has its own
characteristics on the development of an idea pool. Students are exposed to these tradeoffs and can
discuss when and where each of these initiatives types make the most sense. The underlying theory of the
case and innovation in general is discussed in the theories on innovation section.

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Third, this simulation shows students the potential of open innovation efforts in seeding the
innovation funnel or developing solutions. For relatively small resource expenditures, many ideas can be
generated. But this simulation also shows the continued importance of expertise, particularly under
certain mandates where high levels of innovation are required. In learning by experimentation, students
are exposed to different modes of innovation that may be used together to better inform the innovation
process.

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Finally, students learn how important the scope and overall mission or mandate is on setting the
direction and tone of the innovation process. This has direct implications on how the innovation process
is approached, and decisions that a development team can make on how best to respond to a mandate.

The Student Experience

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Overview
After logging in, students are introduced to The Citizen Sun and the overall challenge they will face in the
simulation. Students will walk through a tutorial that will show them how to play the simulation. Once
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the introduction is complete, students will begin the challenge by reading a mandate from their CEO.

This simulation has four overall innovation mandates that the instructor can select, although these
options are not visible to the students. The mandates are categorized by key attributes that influence the
type and effectiveness of the innovation initiatives selected. The first attribute is corporate culture, which
reflects in this simulation whether the firm (Citizen Sun) has a highly innovative culture or a rather risk-
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averse one. The second dimension is how open-ended the problem description is. Next, while the
students all have the same amount of time and budget, different mandates provide clues about how the
company feels about time and finances. The Citizen Sun mandates are as follows (for complete mandate
text, see Appendix A):
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Characterization of the mandates

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EXHIBIT 1

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Innovation
Mandate Culture Nature of Problem Ideal Solution

A High General (non-technical) More time and risk is OK

B Low General (non-technical) Looking for a quicker, less risky idea

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C High Technical (specific) More time and risk is OK

D Low Technical (specific) Looking for a quicker, less risky idea

The mandate descriptions detail upper management’s position on the key variables mentioned above.

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The overall budget and available time are also revealed; budget and time are the same across all
mandates. Students are encouraged to study this information in detail, but it is not a requirement. In the
simulation, the overall process of the game is stepped through. After reviewing the simulation steps,
students are presented with 12 innovation initiatives to choose from. The duration and cost are listed on
the right side of the initiative description. Initiatives are specifically designed to vary in length and cost.
Some are simple and fast, such as posting questions to Citizen social media followers. Others are costly
and lengthy, such as commissioning a project with a local design innovation firm. When students select
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an initiative a description of the initiative is shown, along with any additional options they might have
(for example, in some case they can choose the target audience and the size of the incentive). Once the
initiative parameters (if given) are selected, students are given a summary of the initiative and are
prompted to start the first initiative.
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Once the students have executed their initiative, they are shown a sampling of the ideas generated by
the initiative. The cost to implement, time to implement, risk, and innovation level are shown only if a
particular initiative was run (those involving specialists). The students are given an option to test the
ideas to receive customer feedback if this information is not shown to them. For the sake of simplicity, all
tests are the same total duration and the same cost per idea (one week total for each test run and $1,000
for each idea selected to test). If an idea is tested, the potential of the idea is revealed. The students can
test all the ideas shown or start another initiative. When selecting initiatives, the overall schedule and
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budget are updated. After the student is comfortable with their idea, or has run out of money and time,
they are asked to submit their idea to management. Generally, the simulation runs for approximately 15–
20 minutes for one run. The overall directive is to develop ideas per the mandate within the given cost
and time constraints. There is no benefit or efficiency badge to be earned by a student finishing early, so
students should be encouraged to be thorough in their intake and game play execution. For the scheduled
timing within the simulation itself, those students that use the least amount of the schedule can be used a
discussion point during the debrief, but there is no direct reward in the results section for performance to
schedule. Exhibit 2 provides an overview of the sequence of decisions and outputs.
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Simulation progress

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EXHIBIT 2

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The final results are then revealed. Resource utilization, initiative mix, and the distribution of ideas are
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shown to the student. Next, specifics on their chosen idea are shown, including overall idea quality and
feedback from the CEO. See Student User Screens for more information.

Simulation Model
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The simulation’s model is designed so that different initiatives have different idea distributions. Ideally,
you want to source the highest quality ideas with the least resource uses to “win” the game. Some
initiatives produce many ideas for very little cost, but these might be average or lower quality ideas.
Others are resource intensive, but tend to produce high quality results. To be as realistic as possible, there
is the potential (but small probability) for any initiative to draw a highly innovative idea. The probability
of this occurring is embedded into the overall algorithm (see Detailed Model Explanation). The overall
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strategy of play is driven by the original mandate. There are four mandates, each with important
characteristics or variables ranging from innovation culture to the desired outcome of the project (such as
a highly innovative idea or a good idea developed quickly). But first, we need to explain the rationale
behind the initiatives.

The initiatives are segmented into four overall categories, which we term innovation modes. The
recent changes in how new products and services are designed using digital technology (CAD,
simulation, additive manufacturing, etc.), and how key stakeholders share information and knowledge
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and choose to collaborate has expanded the innovation landscape. In this expanded innovation landscape
of the current digital era, we have identified four separate innovation modes, labeled them specialist,
venture, community, and network (Exhibit 3). Each innovation mode is characterized by its own set of
stakeholders and interaction dynamics. 1

EXHIBIT 3 Four modes of innovation

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The specialist mode of the expanded innovation landscape is created predominantly by the performance
improvements allowed by digital design. In this mode, we often see complex projects that are primarily
driven by for-profit organizations with specialized expertise in their industries and their supply chains.
These often high-risk, high-reward projects are typically developed and commercialized by formal
organizations, using either hierarchy (in-house) or markets (out-sourced) as organizing mechanisms.
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Companies such as Volkswagen, Boeing, IBM, and Apple are examples of firms active in this mode. The
Citizen Sun has a long history as an established specialist in journalism and the creation of generally
traditional news and media. The opportunities for firms currently operating in this mode are creating
new products and services by pushing the envelope of product and service performance. Challenges in
the specialist mode are to build these technical capabilities in-house so that they are harder to imitate by
competitors, and to attract and retain top talent. Specialists are experts in their given industry and
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generally can develop high quality ideas, but can be limited in the quantity and diversity of ideas. In this
simulation, the specialist initiatives are the digital marketing expert, the digital marketing technical staff,
in-person meetings with potential customers, and running internal innovation boot camps.

The venture mode of the expanded innovation landscape enlarges the class of participants to include
even more actors, many of whom could not been involved in the innovation process twenty years ago.
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This mode has been made possible by modern design and prototyping tools lowering the entry barriers.
Actors in this mode tend to assemble the necessary resources by using intermediate services that provide
access to specialized tools and skills. These can be individuals, corporate entrepreneurs, and tinkerers.
For innovation managers of more established firms, this mode can allow small, entrepreneurial internal
teams to develop new product and service ideas and test them at low cost. These internal start-up teams
can help seed traditional concept funnels with ideas that are more advanced in terms of design and
concept testing than traditional methods. One challenge for firms active in the venture mode is that the
ability to quickly identify, select, and assemble necessary resources is a competence that not all firms
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possess. In this simulation, initiatives of the venture mode include giving more time for employees to
develop innovative ideas (e.g. Alphabet Google’s 20% time rule), internal venture groups, and internal
innovation contests.

The third mode of the new innovation landscape attracts large numbers of new entrants due to the low
barriers of entry and includes—at least in part—a self-selection and desire to contribute to innovation. We

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label this mode community. In this mode of open innovation, the setting of organizational and decision-
making boundaries becomes substantially more fuzzy as collaborating with like-minded strangers

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becomes an integral part for some business models. The opportunities for firms operating in this mode
are potentially new forms of market development and user engagement. Many new ideas can be had for
little cost. At the same time, several challenges are also present in this region. Students need to
understand the challenges maintaining, incentivizing, and capturing true value-added contributions from
these communities. While innovation contests using a community can be an efficient mechanism to

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source many ideas, the quality of ideas from laypeople can be a challenge. This is impactful to the
technical challenges where expertise may be of value. The community mode is represented by The Citizen
Sun social media followers, innovation contests at [Link], and the hackathon.

The network mode of the new and diverse innovation landscape combines trust-based sharing
interactions of the community mode with high performance product design typically seen in the
specialist mode. This region combines a general requirement for substantial expertise with sharing

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behavior typical in networks. Until recently this has been the least adopted of the four modes, perhaps
because of the challenging nature of this combination. Nevertheless, there are several high-profile
initiatives that leverage distributed communities working on complex, often high-technology, projects
through collaborative environments. The opportunity in this mode obviously lies in the chance to build
an innovation ecosystem where the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Bringing together the
expertise from a wide range of disciplines and geographies, supported and enabled by advanced digital
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tools, allows the emergence of entirely new solutions, potentially ones that would never emerge in
traditional organizational setups. Rearranging organizational boundaries and new incentive structures
are part of this opportunity. The challenges lie in how to successfully develop and manage the processes,
which require more coordination due to the greater levels of complexity. Building social norms, ensuring
sufficient overlap (or at least information flow between designer and user communities), and
orchestrating the actual work are no easy tasks. In this simulation, the network is represented by the
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design innovation firm, special projects with leading advertisers, and the special project with the Silicon
Valley technology firm.

To see a list of which initiatives tie to which innovation modes see Appendix D.

Successful Student Strategies

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Extending from the mandate, the students can choose a mix of initiatives that may be a combination of
the four modes and these can relate directly to the overall parameters of the challenge. For example, the
innovation expectations for Mandate B are not as high as A, and the mandate wants idea generation done
quickly with less risk. This is the perfect opportunity for students to explore the community mode, where
they can cultivate a large volume of ideas for low cost and risk. Multiple tests can be performed to ensure
the proper selection is made. However, Mandate B requires a fail-safe project, and the company is
conservative, so a specialist that can source a more sure thing may make sense.
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For Mandate A, this is a high innovation culture where they want the innovation team to take risks
and think big. For this task, you might want to cast a wide and deep net. A combination of community
and specialists may make the most sense here.

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For the technical mandates expertise is going to be needed, whether inside or outside the company.
Specialists or a combination of specialists and the network mode may make sense. A table of potential

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outcomes is shown below in Exhibit 4.

EXHIBIT 4 Three possible ways to manipulate the ideal pool to increase the likelihood of high value options

Innov.

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Mandate Culture Problem Time Risk Comments Possible Initiatives

A High Non- Slow High Best performance could be a Community, medium

technical combination of casting the incentive; community
net wide (community, hackathon; internal
venture) and deep (specialist, innovation boot camp
network)

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B Low Non- Fast Low When budget is fully used, Marketing expert; internal
technical specialist and network are innovation boot camp
the safe bets; if low cost and with multifunction team
speed matter, general and recognition
community might perform
well too

C High Technical Slow High Specialist and network are Internal innovation boot
the safe bets; if low cost camp (with editors); local
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matters, the hackathon design innovation firm
version of community might
be tried as well

D Low Technical Fast Low Specialist and network are Internal innovation boot
the safe bets; if low cost camp (multi-functional);
matters, the hackathon Silicon Valley technology
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version of community might partner; incentivized

be tried as well hackathon

Innovation Modes Can Be Effectively Used Together

Students can take different approaches to the simulation based on the mandate given. One of the main
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points of learning is that different innovation modes can be used effectively together. For example, in
Mandate A it may make sense to cast a wide net for ideas, but also focus on depth and quality. In
executing this strategy, a mix of community and specialist modes may be a good option. This leverages
the best characteristics of both, the efficiency of many ideas at low cost from the community and the
expertise and quality of expert teams.

There Is More than One Way to Complete the Challenge

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While we will discuss this in more detail in the next section, one of the points of the simulation is that
there is no silver bullet to win the simulation. There are different individual modes that can be successful.
For example, the design innovation firm may be chosen for Mandate A, and this has a good chance of
sourcing a high quality idea. However, choosing just an open innovation initiative may be successful as
well, and take less time and be more efficient than initiatives based on inside and outside expertise.

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However, the probability of a true high quality idea taking this approach may be lower. During the
debrief, it is expected that there will be a wide range of possible options to solve the simulation, which is

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beneficial to the class discussion on the variety of innovation modes and approaches available to firms.

Open Innovation Is an Effective and Efficient Source of Ideas

In the simulation, there are multiple initiatives that are examples of open innovation. Contests and

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interactions with the general public are options, as are more targeted endeavors such as hackathons. This
shows students the potential of open innovation as an efficient source of idea generation that can be used
effectively, particularly in situations where the risk is low and efficiency in terms of timing is important.
Also included in the simulation is the concept of incentives. Research has shown that incentives and
recognition can impact the quality of ideas, but too generous incentives can actually have a detrimental
impact. This is included in the model and can be explored in more detail during debrief. Discuss how

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valuable open innovation can be, but also its limitations, particularly in dealing with the general public.

Expertise Is Still Important

Mandates A and C are demanding in terms of risk and the high innovation culture that expects a high
quality idea. An important point of learning is the continued importance of expertise in developing ideas
or solutions for complex problems. This may be a reliance on internal talent or external experts brought
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onto the challenge. For these mandates, students that choose initiatives with expertise may have better
results in terms of idea quality. However, the tradeoff is resource use and time.

Early Validation Is Important to the Process

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In the simulation, testing is available to the students. This allows ideas to be vetted before selection. This
really is a form of prototyping and quick validation of concepts before proceeding to selection and further
development. Students that spend the time and money to validate ideas systematically may consistently
outperform those that take their chances. In the debrief, the concept of agile development, customer
interaction, and validation cycles can be introduced. Additionally, the concept of the minimally viable
product (MVP) from the perspective of work like The Lean Startup can be introduced. In fact, this
simulation may be used in conjunction with the Food Truck Challenge to further emphasize the value of
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prototyping.

Suggested Uses
Course Fit and Position

This simulation may be used in courses in new product and service development, innovation and
innovation management, innovation strategy, and marketing. Instructors will find it appropriate for
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students at all levels (undergraduate, MBA, and executive education).

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Teaching Plan

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This teaching plan has four components. To begin, instructors should introduce the simulation,
explaining how students will have an opportunity to try and save a struggling newspaper for 20 to 30
minutes. Next, instructors should provide students with an opportunity to play the game. The simulation
is an individual game, although instructors may choose to have the students work in teams. Third,
instructors should lead a debriefing of the simulation, including a review of the decisions that students

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made and the results they achieved. Depending on discussions and timing, instructors may have the
students play again to choose different initiatives. Finally, instructors may close the session with a few
concluding remarks about the lessons learned from this simulation.

1. Introduction: 5 to 7 minutes

2. Game play: 20 to 30 minutes

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3. Debriefing session: 15 to 20 minutes

4. Lessons and takeaways: 5 to 8 minutes

Introduction

Instructors should begin by introducing the simulation to the class. They should explain that the purpose
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of the game is to provide students with a hands on opportunity to make a series of key decisions that
innovation managers must make during the beginning stages of the innovation process. Students will
compete with their classmates to see who can achieve the best outcome (idea) for the lowest cost in the
shortest amount of time. Some instructors may offer a small prize to the winning individual or team.
Instructors should not discuss the value of open innovation, expertise, etc., during the set-up of the game.
Framing the simulation properly proves to be very important. Instructors should remind students that
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they are not playing a video game. They must read very carefully and pay close attention to the
information provided to them throughout the simulation. Students should not rush to complete the
simulation; they cannot achieve an advantage by finishing before their classmates. In sum, instructors
should encourage students to take a thoughtful and conscientious approach to making decisions
throughout the simulation.
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Before the game begins, each individual should have an Internet-connected device (computer, tablet,
or smart phone) on which to play the game. Instructors should pass out the information about how to log
in to the simulation. Students should be informed that the simulation opens with a brief tutorial that
offers guidance about how to navigate the game’s interface, review data, and make decisions. Finally,
instructors should remind students that they will debrief the simulation as soon as it has been completed.
Therefore, students should be prepared to explain and defend their rationale for each decision that they
make. This entire introduction should be kept quite brief (5–7 minutes) so that the simulation can be
conducted and debriefed during a single class session. The simulation itself takes approximately 20 to 30
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minutes to complete.

Beginning the Debrief

Instructors should ask students to discuss their experiences with one another in small groups. If students
worked individually to complete the simulation, then instructors should ask each person to speak with

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one or two fellow students about their experience. If students worked in teams, then instructors might
encourage team members to review their decisions and performance and perhaps compare and contrast

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their experience and results with that of another team.

After a few minutes of discussion, instructors should bring the entire class together for a debriefing of
the simulation. Instructors might begin by asking, “Could a few students please describe The Citizen Sun
for us? What are the issues they are facing?” Students typically report back basic information about key

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variables, such as the decline in subscriptions and the news consumption behaviors by demographics.
Instructors should inquire further to elicit a description of the changes taking place recently to news and
journalism.

Next, the instructor should ask, “What did you find challenging about this simulation?” Students
should focus on several issues. First, students might point out that they faced some difficult tradeoffs
during the simulation. Selecting some initiatives are expensive and consume a majority of the scheduled

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time. Testing ideas also takes time and money, and there is a tradeoff between idea quality and the types
of initiatives selected. Instructors should begin the discussion noting that overall, successful innovation is
about developing and selecting the best ideas for a given challenge in the most resource efficient manner
possible. The overall mandates and their associated characteristics greatly influence the tradeoffs in the
selection of which initiatives may be successful. Instructors should also lead in to the notion that there are
different modes of innovation that work well in certain situations, and that there is not a single right
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answer to the puzzle. Different initiatives can work well together, and their innate characteristics and
pros and cons can be exploited during the innovation process.

Debriefing the Different Methods

Instructors then should ask students to explain the rationale for their decisions. “What initiatives did you
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choose and why?” “How did you feel about choosing external versus internal initiatives?”

Students may approach the simulation with preconceived notions of the value of different initiatives.
They may have been exposed to design firms like IDEO for example, or have had lectures on open
innovation. In our development we noticed that selecting open innovation efforts were popular. But it is
important to tease out the tradeoffs of each.
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At this time, it is good to poll the class on how many choose open innovation initiatives, external
experts, or internal resources, and how many choose multiple different initiatives. There may be students
that just chose to run one type of initiative, perhaps multiple times, testing each idea and selecting the
best of the lot. The instructor may then ask, “Did anyone focus on the low cost initiatives that tapped
things like social media communities?”

Debriefing the Class Results

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At some point during this discussion, instructors may wish to display the leaderboard on a screen at the
front of the class. Naturally, students already have seen these results because the simulation provides real
time comparison of performance relative to all classmates. However, instructors may ask students to look
for patterns in the results and to draw some conclusions after reflecting on the class discussion.

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Critical Takeaways

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1. There are different ways or modes firms can innovate. These different modes have inherent
advantages and disadvantages depending on the firm and its situation. While the innovation
process wants to seek and develop the best idea, during idea generation there are important
considerations on how different modes of innovation can impact the quality, quantity, and
dispersion of ideas. For example, the community mode can be an excellent option for efficiently

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seeking high quantities of ideas. Other situations, like those that are more technical and looking
for a riskier, highly innovative idea, may rely on expertise to develop a lower quantity of high
quality ideas. Different modes can be used effectively in different situations. For more detailed
information on this, please see the Theories of Innovation section.

2. Using multiple innovation modes can be an effective approach to innovation. A multi-model

organization is one in which the firm has the organization capability and flexibility to leverage

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each of the innovation modes when and where needed. This may be to augment their established
specialist mode, for example to include user input into the innovation process via engaged
communities on social networking, or to empower individual employees to be makers and begin
internal ventures.

In the past, most companies were active only in a single mode, the precursor of the specialist
mode. In fact, the innovation mode was part of their identity. It described the companies’
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ambitions to be a leader in either high quality, low cost, or some other dimension. As a result, all
internal processes were aligned to achieve this goal. Firms aiming to be a low cost leader, reduced
variety, increased volume, and invested resources to develop innovations that would support that
goal. Ford Motor Company is a classic historical example, with their focus on standardization and
eventual cost reduction in the production of the Model T. Dell Computer is a more recent example.
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For others in the specialist mode, the desire has been to push the boundaries of their efforts, to
produce products and services that have features, profit margins, and sales beyond that of their
competition. Apple is an example of a highly successful specialist.

Most firms are one-dimensional in their mode of innovation, and few firms are ambidextrous in
their approaches. However, ambidexterity has historically been associated with incremental or
radical innovation, meaning that most firms have trouble doing both. We expand the definition of
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ambidexterity to include the ability of the firm to simultaneously explore multiple modes of
innovation concomitantly.

There are several examples of firms beginning to explore these approaches. An example is
General Motors (GE), who experimented with the open innovation firm Quirky (the community
mode). Others such as BMW and Dominos Pizza are exploring the network mode, with
engagements with Local Motors. Our investigations have indicated that mode pairings such as the
community and specialist can be a way for firms to become comfortable with mode exploration.
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For example, many recent examples pair a specialist with a community (e.g. GE and Quirky). GE is
an interesting case because they are also exploring specialist-maker pairings with their FirstBuild
initiative. GE describes FirstBuild as “an online and physical community dedicated to designing,
engineering, building, and selling the next generation of major home appliances.”

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3. Open innovation is valuable, but there are tradeoffs. The opportunities for firms operating in this
mode are potentially new forms of market development and user engagement. Both new ideas

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from, and closer ties with, consumers can be the result. It is very efficient in sourcing new ideas. At
the same time, several challenges are also present in this region. For example, the decision-making
authority of the owners of a firm might be more constrained, if the opinion of 1,000,000 community
members has to be considered. This can be especially challenging when the community’s needs
have to be balanced with other business considerations. For example, Quirky’s 2014 development

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of an app-enabled air conditioning window unit in collaboration with GE Appliances led to an
accelerated development schedule. The consequence: some decisions were made without involving
the community, leading to considerable discontent among many community members. In addition,
maintaining a viable and contributing community over time is no simple feat and may require
substantial resources to manage, with careful considerations of the type and scope of incentives.

4. Mandates and upper-level direction matter. In this simulation, we have four different mandates

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with slightly different characteristics that can drive different approaches to innovation. The impact
of company culture, project mission, and given mandates can have a substantial impact on how a
project is approached. This shows that management can have a direct impact on the overall
outcome of an innovation effort and careful consideration needs to be given to organization culture
and overall directives given to innovation employees and managers.
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Suggested Discussion Questions
1. What initiatives did you choose, and why?

2. How did you feel about choosing external versus internal initiatives?
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3. Did anyone focus on the low-cost initiatives that tapped social media communities?

4. What was your approach to incentives for those types of initiatives?

5. What was your approach to testing and validating? Did you test immediately or try various initiatives first?
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6. How did you feel about the costly and lengthy initiatives like the design firm or Silicon Valley initiatives?

7. How much influence did the original mandate have on your strategy and selection of initiatives?

8. What did you learn during this simulation? What key lessons could you apply during idea generation of
others new products or services?
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Theories on Innovation
The underlying idea of this simulation is to have students experience innovation as a stochastic process.
If one views innovation as a search process, successful innovation can be understood as a sequence of at
least two searches across an unknown landscape—one in the problem space, the other in the solutions

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space (see Exhibit 5). While the separation is not entirely clear in all cases, and real innovation processes
may jump back and forth, this conceptual model still helps to understand the options a product manager

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has in designing and managing her innovation process.

EXHIBIT 5 Innovation process model 2

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In order to innovate, first a problem needs to be identified. While many companies in many real life
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situations spend relatively little time on this part, some form of problem identification occurs. Often this
is rather implicit, sometimes driven by competition and sometimes just what an executive or manager has
identified for her people to work on. In either case, one or more possible problems have been considered,
and of those one problem has been selected. Once a problem has been selected, a solution option
generation process follows, and from the resulting pool of solution options a solution will be selected.
Note that this simple, linear description of the innovation process is an oversimplification. Real versions
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might exhibit multiple rounds, feedback loops, and merging and reworking of solution ideas.

To be commercially successful, many elements along this innovation process have to work properly:
Good ideas have to be found, selected and developed. Appropriate commercialization activities have to
be added. Acknowledging this limitation and to keep this simulation short, it focuses on the fundamental
task of innovation managers to manage the process of generating options and of selecting the most
promising ones. On this generic level, this task occurs both in the problem space as well as the solution
space. For the purpose of this simulation, we will focus the discussion below on the solution space.
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The task of generating a pool of solution ideas that have a high probability to contain one or more high
value ideas requires understanding of the underlying mechanics. If one assumes that each idea pool
represents some form of distribution with respect to one or more quality dimensions, the goal of the
subsequent selection process is to identify the extreme value options (see Exhibit 6).

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High value options are found in the upper tail of the distribution of the solution idea pool

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EXHIBIT 6

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To improve the likelihood that the solution generation process produces high value solutions, the
innovation manager can manipulate essentially three dimensions of the distribution: increase its size,
increase its dispersion, or increase the average quality (see Exhibit 7). 3

EXHIBIT 7 Three possible ways to manipulate the ideal pool to increase the likelihood of high value options
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First, all else being equal, considering a larger number of ideas increases the size of the overall
distribution, and consequently the tail containing the high value options. Note that considering a larger
number of ideas also often drives up the selection cost (more on the selection process later). Second,
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increasing the dispersion of the ideas in the pool (increase in the standard deviation), all else being equal,
makes the tails of the distribution fatter, and thus increases the probability of the idea pool containing a
high value idea. Note that the fattening of the tails tends to be symmetric, i.e., this approach must also
tolerate an increase of the number of very bad ideas. Third, increasing the average quality of ideas, all
else being equal, leads to a larger portion of the idea pool being above the high value threshold. a

Given this situation, the product manager’s task now becomes to design a process that generates the
desired characteristics of the idea pool. In the simulation, we provide the managers with 12 different
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initiatives that they can choose from to produce a new idea in response to the charge they received from
their superiors. The idea generation initiatives come with different cost and time requirements attached

aSeveral articles extend this admittedly simplified representation. For example, some show how the optimal size and
dispersion of the idea pool structure depends on the costs and learning between stages (Sanjiv Erat, “Making the Best
Even Better: The Role of Idea Pool Structure,” Production and Operations Management [Forthcoming]).

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so that the in the given time and cost budget, initiatives can be combined (for game simplicity only
sequentially), and/or executed multiple times. For example, players can run a low cost open innovation

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effort on social media, or contract with a Silicon Valley technology firm to develop a new application. The
latter of course will take longer and cost substantially more.

For some initiatives, the product manager can also select the audience with whom he wants to run the
initiative. This question is particularly relevant for those initiatives for which participants self-select.

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Generally, the manager can focus on experts or laypeople. Asking experts (such as a design innovation
firm or a marketing expert) obviously increases the average quality of the contributions, but comes with a
lower degree of dispersion compared to laypeople. The average quality of expert solutions is obvious, but
research has also shown that, all else being equal, marginality, either social or professional, can lead to
producing high value outliers. 4,5

Within some of the initiatives, the product manager can also vary the size of the incentive. Specifically,

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for innovation initiatives in which participants self-select into the process, the size of the winning price
shapes how many and who will participate. As a result, these decisions affect the idea pool distribution
characteristics. 6 Generally speaking, the effect of the size of the price on number of participants exhibit
an inverted U-shape. Initially, increasing the prize entices more participants to enter the contest, but
beyond a certain point the competition heats up so that only very competitive participants (people or
firms) enter the contest. 7 This raises the average quality of solution ideas, but reduces their number and
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dispersion. 8

The selection process is kept very simple for the purpose of this simulation. After each innovation
initiative, the participant is presented with a subset of ideas, representing the larger distribution. Each
idea comes attached with some initial quality assessment (this is not true in most real cases). If the
student runs certain initiatives, say with a specialized firm, they will be shown these metrics
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immediately. Conversely, if a student runs an initiative like a social media contest, they will not be given
these metrics immediately and must test and research themselves using time and money. The initial
quality assessments cover cost to implement, time to implement, risk, and innovation level. This
information allows a preliminary assessment of the outcome of the innovation initiative.

More generally, selection processes come with their own challenges attached. First, the underlying
evaluation often incurs a cost, which can be significant when considering large numbers. Sometimes these
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costs can be off loaded to communities if they can be motivated to engage in the activity. In the problem
space, user and customers are also often in the best position to provide evaluation input, whereas in
many solution space evaluations technical expertise is helpful. In addition, various biases effect these
evaluations and selection processes 9, some of which can be counteracted by using averages of larger
numbers of evaluators.

As the student tries different initiatives, the ideas generated will accumulate and the student will
exhaust both time and money. Generally, the open innovation initiatives will allow for a greater number
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of ideas generated, with the possibility of a high potential outlier. The incentives can change the average
quality of the idea pool slightly, but too much incentive can have the opposite effect, as we noted earlier.
The students will not know this during the simulation. During play, the students can submit their
selected idea to find out a final result. Note: the simulation currently allows students to submit an idea,
then go back to run another initiative. A wise strategy may be to run one or more initiatives, collect
promising options, and then select and submit one at the end.

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Theoretically, students who choose the best idea while spending the least amount of resources “win”,
however some cultures allow for additional money and resources to be spent without repercussion. A

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winning strategy may be to use a mix of open innovation and expert resources (both internal and
external). However, depending on the mandate, a series of incentivized open innovation initiatives may
work well, and the fact that there is a chance of a high quality outlier makes the simulation more realistic.
The overall learning objective, which we will discuss in more detail in the next section, is that there is a
menu of options available to the innovation manager. The selection of which options (or initiatives in this

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case) depend heavily on the given mandate from upper-level management. Time and resource
availability are also a factor. While there is no silver bullet in this case, this makes for a realistic
immersion into the complexities of innovation management.

Detailed Model Explanation

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The model behind the Innovation Simulation: Breaking News has been devised on the premise that different
activities (i.e. initiatives) and how they’re designed (i.e. incentives offered and audience) will produce
differing sets of results (i.e. ideas). However, to emulate the reality of innovation and ideation, the ideas
produced for each combination of inputs is not predetermined. Instead, the model is designed so that the
inputs selected will change the probabilities of which ideas will be produced. Therefore, two students could
run the same initiative with the same incentives offered to the same audience and they will likely receive
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different sets of ideas as their results.

The simulation favors, but does not guarantee success to, students that can identify the underlying
characteristics of the different initiative choices and that can also understand the incremental impact of
properly incentivizing the selected audience. The initiatives and the fundamental differences between
them are further discussed in the Simulation Model section of this teaching note. Some initiatives will
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produce many ideas while others produce only a few; some will produce higher average quality ideas
while others will produce lower; some will require a lot of resources to conduct while others will not.
Quantifying the successful output of an initiative is determined by looking at the distribution of ideas
produced (quantity, quality) and the cost to attain them (time and budget). Of course, while a successful
output of ideas may be the result of a student’s efforts, it may not necessarily reflect a successful design of
the initiative; it may reflect a fortunate turn of events, in other words luck, from less-than-ideal initiative
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choices.

As mentioned above, the model is designed so that student decisions change the probabilities of the
ideas they receive. The choices they make (the combination of initiative, audience, and incentive)
determine the distribution of ideas they receive. This distribution of ideas is characterized by its quantity,
average quality, and standard deviation of ideas, and follows a generally normal distribution. The one
exception is that each initiative has a higher opportunity to produce an “8” or “9” rated idea than what a
normal distribution would normally provide. This was intentionally designed to mimic the possibility of
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receiving great ideas from any source, and to make it slightly more likely that students could be
successful with any initiative in this simulation. Once a student submits their designed initiative, the
model determines how many ideas should be supplied and what quality ratings those ideas should be.
Then, it randomly selects ideas that match those characteristics and returns them to the student. A table
of every possible initiative combination and their distributions is provided in Appendix E.

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As an example, one initiative design may result in five ideas with an average quality rating of 4 and a
standard deviation of 1.5, while another may result in two ideas with an average quality of 7 and a

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standard deviation of 0.5. You might surmise that the former could be one of the community initiatives
where you would expect more ideas of likely lower value, like a social media competition, while the latter
could be a specialist initiative where you’d expect less ideas but likely of higher quality, like hiring a
prestigious design firm.

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To supply the model with a pool of ideas that cover the full range of idea qualities (i.e. 1–9), a simple
weighting system was used to provide a consistent scoring of all the ideas. This instills confidence that
the ideas are in fact consistently scored and not arbitrarily ranked by this simulation’s creators. This
weighting system scored each of the four idea characteristics depicted in the simulation: innovation level,
risk, cost to implement, time to implement. By using this weighting system, ideas with the same
characteristics will have the same quality rating, and those with differing characteristics will be rated
relatively so. While the weighting system will not be known to students, the key is understanding that

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each characteristic of an idea should not, and does not, hold similar weight. Understanding their mandate
from the CEO will help them determine which characteristics are most important. Additionally, with this
scoring system we are ensured that future students will be able to determine idea quality by looking only
at idea characteristics, regardless of whether the idea itself has become old or obsolete. A table of all the
ideas and their quality ratings for each mandate is provided in Appendix B.
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Also of note, there are four different mandates, or scenarios, that can be assigned and played. The
model adjusts for the differences in these mandates by adjusting both the idea distributions for initiatives
and the weighting systems used to score the quality ratings of the ideas. With initiatives, the only
differences arise when comparing Mandates A and B against Mandates C and D, as Mandates C and D
are addressing a more technical problem and therefore give more emphasis to initiatives that are more
likely to provide higher quality technical ideas (such as the “leading technology firm”). With ideas, the
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weighting systems differ when comparing Mandates A and C (more innovative mandates) versus
Mandates B and D. Since an idea may be rated as a “7” for Mandate A but only a “5” in Mandate B, the
ideas reflect how their characteristics match up with the mandate’s requirements. Additionally, since
Mandates C and D are addressing a technical problem statement, only ideas that are technical in nature
(i.e. addressing technology or digital components) will be provided to students assigned with these
mandates.
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Technical Guide

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Adopting the Simulation and Enabling Student Access
The Harvard Business Publishing for Educators website allows you to distribute course materials—
including simulations—to students through online coursepacks. Detailed instructions on creating and

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managing coursepacks can be found on our site help page: [Link]

STEP 1: ADD
Add the simulation to a coursepack along with other HBP materials.

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• Search for the simulation on the Harvard Business Publishing for Educators website
([Link] and add it to a new or existing coursepack.

STEP 2: ACTIVATE
Activate your coursepack to gain access to the simulation as a facilitator.
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• During the activation process you can determine payment mode (student-pay or institution-pay)
and set course information (course level, and so on).
• The activation process produces a unique coursepack link that you can email to students or post so
they can access—and purchase, if using student-pay mode—the simulation.
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• The activation process also provides a Manage Simulation link that grants access to the simulation
as a facilitator.

STEP 3: DISTRIBUTE
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Distribute the coursepack link to students so they can enroll.

• When students go to the coursepack link, they will reach a login screen to the Harvard Business
Publishing for Educators website (if students have an existing account, they can use it to log in;
otherwise, they can complete a brief registration to create an account).

• Student-pay: After logging in, students pay for the materials in the coursepack.
• Institution-pay: After logging in, students are automatically enrolled in the coursepack.
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• Once enrolled in the coursepack, students automatically appear in the simulation.

• If students click “Run Simulation” in their coursepack prior to the simulation being set to open,
students will see the following message: “The simulation is closed by the facilitator.”

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STEP 4: CONFIGURE
Configure the simulation for your class.

• Click “Manage Simulation” from your coursepack view.

• Go to “Simulation Setup” to configure the simulation.

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♦ Click “Set up a new run.” The class can play multiple runs of the simulation, but only one at a
time.

♦ Ensure all students are populated into the simulation.

♦ Choose the scenario(s) (mandates) to which different students will be randomly assigned.

♦ Auto-assign students to the chosen scenarios.

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♦ Open the simulation for play.

Help Resources
Tips to Optimize Computer Performance During a Simulation
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1. Restart your computer. Computers that have not been restarted in a long time can run slowly. A
restart will help your computer’s speed and your overall simulation performance.

2. ONE browser + ONE tab. Simulations work best with only one browser and one tab open.
Opening the simulation in more than one browser or tab has a negative impact on performance
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and on your data.

3. Close all other programs and browsers. Running fewer programs allows your computer to
devote more speed to the simulation.

4. Turn off other wireless devices. Multiple devices simultaneously trying to access the wireless
connection at the same time can weaken the network strength. You may also have devices that are
No

holding on to connections from other distant locations. Shut off the wireless connections on all
your devices and turn it back on for the device you will be using for the simulation.

For technical and account support, contact Harvard Business Publishing Customer Support:

WEB: [Link]
Do

E-MAIL: techhelp@[Link]

PHONE: 1-800-810-8858 (+1 617-783-7700 outside the United States and Canada)

FAX: +1-617-783-7666

Please visit our website for the latest device technical requirements [Link]

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 QUICK START GUIDE TEACHING NOTE TECHNICAL GUIDE APPENDICES

Simulation Overview

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Student User Screens

Introduction

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Once students enter the simulation, they are brought to the title page. If the simulation has not been
opened by the instructor, the “Get Started” button will be disabled and students will not be able to move
forward. If the simulation has been opened, students will click the “Get Started” button to proceed.

yo
op
tC

Students are then brought to the overview page where they will read a little about their role and the
purpose of the simulation. Then students click on “Lean How to Play” to begin the tutorial.
No
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Tutorial Mode

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Tutorial Mode walks through the three phases of the game with five slides of explanation overlaid on the
game’s main screens. Specific actions are highlighted and numbered on the slides.

Step 1 walks students through reading the background information and their mandate.
tC
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Step 2 walks students through designing their innovation initiative.

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Steps 3 walks students through selecting and testing their ideas.
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tC

Student may move through the tutorial by clicking “Next” or “Back.” Students can also close out of the
tutorial at any time and return to the tutorial at any time by clicking the “Help” button in the top right
corner of the simulation. On the last slide students can click “Done” or close out of the tutorial to begin
No

playing.
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Mandate Page

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After the tutorial students are brought to the mandate page. This is a static page in the form of a memo;
students should read through carefully as this directive should influence their decisions throughout the
game. Students will receive one of the mandates that the instructor has selected, but will not know that
there are variations on the mandate unless the professor discloses that information. From here, students
are not directed through the game, rather, they can explore any available areas by clicking on the red tabs

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at the top and they can return to the mandate at any time.

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Background Page
tC

Many students will choose to review the background page next, as the tutorial advises. This section
consists of two tabs, Company Background and Market Data.
No
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Company Background: The company background page contains a snapshot of statistics and information
about The Citizen Sun.

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Market Data: The market data page contains information about the newspaper industry.
tC
No
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Initiatives Page

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After reading through the available background information, students will likely want to begin their
initiatives by clicking on the initiatives tab.

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yo
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On the right side of the page, students will notice a dashboard that summarizes their remaining budget
and time.
tC
No
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These numbers will change as students use their allotted resources.

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rP
The majority of this page is taken up with the display of the 12 initiatives. Each initiative has an
associated duration and cost—each initiative will affect their time and budget differently. Students can
click on an initiative and it will become highlighted and display additional information in the right panel,
including a longer description and associated choices. Some initiatives have different audiences to choose
from or different incentives to offer participants.

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op
tC
No

For example, in the selected initiative, student can choose from the following audiences, unique to this
initiative selection:
Do

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After selecting an audience, students can choose from the following incentives, unique to this particular
initiative and audience selection:

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rP
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Once they complete both selections (where applicable), they will click “Start this Initiative”:
op
tC
No
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A pop-up will appear recapping the student’s choices and asking them to confirm or cancel.

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Ideas Page

Once they confirm, students will be brought to the ideas page. Here, students will see a summary of the
initiative that they ran. The initiative description includes the total number of ideas generated and says
that a sampling of ideas appears below. On the ideas page, students have three choices. They can review
tC

their idea profiles and test ideas if they have incomplete profiles. They can start another initiative if they
want to generate more ideas. Or they can submit a final idea.
No
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Idea profiles and testing ideas

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os
In the example below, the initiative that the student chose came with three ideas, each with a complete
idea profile. Students will see a summary of each idea, the cost to implement the idea, the time to
implement the idea, the level of risk involved (the info button provides more information on this), and
the innovation level (the info button provides more information on this). Please see Appendix C to learn
more about which initiatives produce complete idea profiles and which initiatives produce ideas that

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need to be tested in order to complete the idea profile.

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To read more about an idea, students can click on the idea and the right panel will populate with a
description.
op
tC
No
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Sometimes an initiative will produce a collection of ideas that does not come with a complete idea profile.
In this case, students can decide whether to test these ideas to get a complete sense of what they entail.

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yo
Students can click on the info button next to the test column to learn about testing ideas.
op
tC
No
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 QUICK START GUIDE TEACHING NOTE TECHNICAL GUIDE APPENDICES

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Students can then select as many ideas as they would like and test them all in one week. Each idea tested
costs $1,000. Students click “Test” on the ideas they would like to select. Then they click “Test X Ideas.”

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rP
yo
A pop-up will appear asking students to confirm their choices.
op
tC
No

The student will then receive the complete idea profile for the ideas that they tested.
Do

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Start another initiative

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Students may choose to start another initiative after reviewing or completing their idea profiles through
testing. To do so, students would click on “Start Another Initiative.” Alternatively, students could also
click on the initiatives tab.

rP
yo
op
From there, they will be brought back to the initiatives tab. This time, the initiative that the student
already ran will be crossed out and their time/budget will have appropriately decreased.
tC
No
Do

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 QUICK START GUIDE TEACHING NOTE TECHNICAL GUIDE APPENDICES

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Students can select from among the other initiatives. Once they click on an initiative, details are revealed
on the right panel. They can choose audience and incentive, where applicable, and choose to submit the

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initiative.

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A pop-up will confirm their choices and they can cancel or submit the second initiative.
tC
No
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They will then be brought back to the ideas page where they will see the ideas from both of their
initiatives. They can analyze/test their idea profiles, run another initiative, or submit their chosen idea.

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yo
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Students can run as many initiatives as they would like unless either budget or time runs out. If a student
tries to run an initiative that they do not have sufficient budget or time for, a message will alert them and
they will be returned to the ideas page to make another choice. They can also return to the ideas page at
tC

any time by clicking the tab at the top.

No
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Submit an idea

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When a student has an idea that they would like to submit, they can click on the idea to populate the
right pane with information about the idea. They will then click “Submit Idea.”

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yo
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A pop-up will confirm that they would like to submit the idea.
tC
No
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Results Page

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os
After submitting their idea, students will be brought to the results page. This page shows students a
variety of information about both their selected initiatives and recommended idea.

rP
yo
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First, a bar graph shows students how they sourced their ideas. This includes information about which
initiatives they chose to run and the quantity and quality generated. The quantity shows the sample size
tC

they received and the quality shows the average quality rating of the ideas, per their mandate, based on
back end data. See the model section for more information.
No
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Next, students can see how they utilized their resources. They will receive a rating of Maximized (90%+
of time and money used), Substantial (60–89% of time and money used), Moderate (30–59% of time and

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money used), or Low (<29% of time and money used).

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yo
Next, students can see information about how they mixed the different types of initiatives. If the student
only ran one initiative, this will identify the mode they used: specialist, venture, community, or network.
If the student ran multiple initiatives, the sentence will say “mix of innovation types.” Then the sentence
will say “a traditional, internal approach” (if the student chose specialist/venture mode), “a more open
approach” (if the student chose community/network mode), or “a mix of traditional and open
approaches” (if they chose one or more from the first category and one or more from the second
op
category). Then this feedback will outline if they chose a targeted, general, or mix of audiences in their
initiatives.
tC
No

Below this information, students see a summary of the initiatives that they ran.
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Next, students receive feedback about their idea selection. On the left, they see a summary of the idea
they recommended with its associated idea profile. They also receive an idea quality rating, which is a

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rating for the idea in relation to the assigned mandate. See Detailed Model Explanation for more
information.

On the right, students receive a little feedback from their CEO about their choice in relation to their
mandate. Students receive “Sounds great!” (if their idea ranked 8+), “That could work.” (if their idea

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ranked 5–7), “Hmm…” (if their idea ranked 2–4), or “What IS this!?” (if their idea ranked 1). The feedback
following that quote is different depending on if the student had an innovative or conservative CEO.

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After seeing their feedback, students may choose to play again if the instructor has activated that feature.
tC

If the student chooses to play again, they will be playing with the same mandate. If the instructor would
like students to play with a different mandate, they will need to set up a new run and change the
mandates. The system will try to assign students to a mandate that they have not previously received.
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Faculty Administration Screens

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There are three main facilitator screens: simulation setup, class summary, and facilitator materials.

Simulation Setup

On this screen, you will see the setup steps listed on the left side and the current status listed on the right

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side.

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tC

First click “Set up a new run.” The status will change to say “setting up run number 1.”

Next, ensure that all students are registered. You will notice the status says how many students are
registered in the simulation. Make sure this number matches the number of students you expected. You
can click on “view user list” to see which students have registered in case you need to figure out who has
not yet registered.
No
Do

You will then select the mandates you would like the class to run. Students will be randomly assigned
from the mandates that you check off. The status on the right will let you know the percentage of
students that will receive each mandate selected.

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Then, click on “Assign students” to distribute the class. You may “unassign all” to begin a new random
distribution.

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Last, open the simulation for play by selecting “The simulation is OPEN to students.” When the

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simulation is “CLOSED” to students, they will see the overview screen and tutorial, but nothing more.
Once you click “OPEN” they will be able to move through the game.
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Post-Simulation Option: If you would like your students to be able to play an unlimited number of
rounds with the same mandate, you may select this option. Students should be reminded that only their
first run of play will count, meaning that further runs are not saved on the back end of the simulation and
the facilitator will not see their results. If you check off this option before opening the simulation,
students will have that option immediately.
tC

Alternatively, you can wait until after students play and then check this box. Then, instruct students to
refresh their screens, and the play again option will appear.

If you would like students to play another recorded run, set up a new run following the steps above.
No
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Class Summary

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Overview

On the class summary page, the instructor will see an overview of which initiative modes the students
chose. If the student ran multiple initiative campaigns, each will be represented with a dot. The blue dots
represent students who had a technical mandate (C and/or D) and the red dots represent students who

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had a general mandate (A and/or B).

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Below the grid, the professor can choose to filter the results shown by specific mandate or specific run
tC

number.
No
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Further down, the instructor can see and sort all student data. Each line represents one student and one
initiative. The instructor can sort by any of the columns or filter using the filter above. The instructor can

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also use the magnifying glass to peer into a particular student’s results page.

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Recommended Ideas

On this page, instructors can see graphs about the overall submitted ideas as well as a summary of the
idea submitted by each student as well. The graphs at the top represent the idea profiles of each idea the
students submitted. The innovative CEO bars represent mandates A and C and the conservative CEO
bars represent mandates B and D. Below, is a sortable table where each line represents one student and
op
their submitted idea.
tC
No
Do

Facilitator Materials

Here, you will find author videos and debrief slides.

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Appendices

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Appendix A: Mandate Text

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Mandate A

To: You, Product Manager

From: Jane Landry, CEO
Subject: Big idea needed—the more innovative, the better

We’re facing some tough times at The Citizen Sun. Our revenues are down nearly 11% over the past three

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years, print circulation continues to decline, and even web traffic has stagnated.

We’ve already implemented extensive restructuring and cost-cutting measures, so now our only option is
to come up with an exciting new idea to reinvigorate The Sun. I want you to head up an exploration team
to figure out the best way to shake things up: What change or new feature can we implement to increase
readership, traffic, and revenue?
op
The new fiscal year starts in 12 weeks, and I would like a pitch by then. I’ll give you $50,000 in internal
and external resources to submit a truly original idea. I trust you and I know you’ll come up with
something highly innovative.
tC

Mandate B

To: You, Product Manager

From: Anton Wilfrid, CEO
Subject: Looking for a quick-win idea

We’re facing some tough times at The Citizen Sun. Our revenues are down nearly 11% over the past three
No

years, print circulation continues to decline, and even web traffic has stagnated.

Our extensive restructuring and cost-cutting measures are not enough. We need a new, but not too risky,
idea to keep The Sun alive. I want you to head up an exploration team to figure out the best way to
reverse our downturn: What change or new feature can we implement to increase readership, traffic,
and revenue?

The new fiscal year starts in 12 weeks, and I need a pitch by then—at the latest. I’ll give you no more than
Do

$50,000 in internal and external resources to submit your idea. Don’t go crazy. This isn’t the right time for
something too radical, and we cannot afford to miss.

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Mandate C

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To: You, Product Manager
From: Jane Landry, CEO
Subject: Big idea needed—the more innovative, the better

Bad news: More than 40% of our subscribers are frustrated by their experience reading The Sun online.

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Several readers have voiced that they’ve “given up” on The Sun. They won’t come back until we can get
digital right.

We know this is an area where we’ve fallen down. We need some new, innovative thinking around our
digital strategy. I need you to head up an exploration team to figure out how to make a big leap: What is
your best idea for revamping our digital experience?

yo
We have a board meeting in 12 weeks, and I would like a pitch by then. I’ll give you $50,000 in internal
and external resources to submit a cutting-edge idea. I trust you and know you’ll come up with
something highly innovative.

Mandate D
op
To: You, Product Manager
From: Anton Wilfrid, CEO
Subject: Looking for a quick-win idea

Bad news: More than 40% of our subscribers are frustrated by their experience reading The Sun online.
tC

Several readers have voiced that they’ve “given up” on The Sun. They won’t come back until we can get
digital right.

We know we need to improve in this area, but we’re in a bind—technical projects can get very expensive,
and we don’t have much room in the budget. I need you to head up an exploration team to figure out
some quick wins: What is your best idea for revamping our digital experience?
No

We have an executive board meeting in 12 weeks, and I want a pitch by then—at the latest. I’ll give you
no more than $50,000 in internal and external resources to submit your idea. Don’t go crazy. This isn’t the
right time for something too radical, and we cannot afford to miss.
Do

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Appendix B: Complete Idea List

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Note: all ideas marked with an “x” are considered non-technical and will not appear for Mandates C or
D, which address a technical problem.

Idea Characteristics Mandates

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Innovation Risk
# Idea Level (1-5) (1-9) Cost Time A, C B, D
1 Game-ify user experience 5 3 medium medium 9 9
2 Launch a marketing services division 5 4 high high 9 7
3 Extend the brand into the events space 5 4 medium medium 9 7 x
4 Spin off a dedicated, digital-only brand 5 4 medium medium 9 7
5 Invest in augmented reality news 5 7 high high 8 4

yo
6 Launch a user-generated local news and networking platform 5 7 medium medium 8 5
7 Spin off an affiliated marketing and media agency 5 8 high high 8 4 x
8 Invest in virtual reality technologies 5 8 high high 8 4
9 Redesign entire mobile experience 4 3 high high 8 8
10 Reinvent editorial focus to present a 360-degree view on topics 4 3 low medium 8 9 x
11 Offer location-based personalization 4 3 medium low 8 9
12 Publish long-form multimedia stories 4 3 medium medium 8 8
op
13 Develop a Citizen Sun chat messenger bot 4 4 low low 8 8
14 Enable a "fact check the news" tool 4 5 high medium 7 6
15 Create an adventure game app set in the local community 4 6 high medium 7 5
16 Create documentary video series 4 6 high high 7 5
17 Livestream news using social media 4 6 medium low 7 6
18 Launch an investigative journalism-based podcast series 4 6 medium medium 7 5 x
tC

19 Develop an online local politics platform 4 7 medium medium 7 5 x

20 Launch a line of specialty apps (cooking, traffic, real estate, 4 8 high high 7 4
crosswords)
21 Delve into book publishing 4 8 high high 7 4 x
22 Become an online-only publication 4 8 medium high 7 3
23 Transition to white label web services 4 9 high medium 6 4 x
24 Develop a recommendation engine for personalized newsfeed 3 2 low medium 7 8
No

25 Enhance mobile touch functionality 3 2 medium low 7 8

26 Optimize experience for all device types 3 2 medium low 7 8
27 Offer more web and mobile customization options 3 3 high medium 6 8
28 Undergo a full rebranding of the paper 3 3 high high 6 7 x
29 Add user-generated content features 3 3 low medium 7 8
30 Print commemorative historical editions 3 3 medium medium 7 8 x
31 Create a section aimed at recent college graduates 3 3 medium low 7 8 x
32 Launch new products for younger readers 3 3 medium low 7 8
33 Shorten content 3 4 low low 7 7 x
Do

34 Offer an all-access subscription 3 4 low low 7 7

35 Optimize long-form media experience for mobile 3 4 medium medium 6 7
36 Create a real estate flyer 3 4 medium medium 6 7 x
37 Launch a local classifieds platform 3 4 medium low 6 7
38 Turn over our entire sales staff 3 5 high high 6 5
39 Partner with a news radio station 3 5 low low 6 6 x

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40 Create a channel on a popular online video-sharing website 3 5 medium medium 6 5
41 Host a cultural events series 3 5 medium medium 6 5 x

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42 Invest in better video and multimedia tools 3 5 medium medium 6 5
43 Utilize picture-sharing social media to drive traffic 3 5 medium low 6 6
44 Offer enhanced online game section and social game apps 3 6 high high 5 4
45 Support student journalism 3 6 low low 6 5 x
46 Allow users to create private communities for content sharing 3 6 medium medium 6 5

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47 Add a live chat feature 3 6 medium low 6 5
48 Partner with local colleges to share content 3 7 low medium 6 5 x
49 Launch an affiliated dating website 3 7 medium high 5 2
50 Create a debate feature 3 7 medium medium 5 4
51 Launch "Sun TV" 3 8 high high 5 3
52 Divide into 2 parallel papers catering to readers' political preferences 3 8 high high 5 4 x
53 Rebrand newspaper as a graphic novel 3 8 high high 5 4 x

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54 Become a social media–only paper 3 9 low medium 3 2
55 Diversify our subscription offerings 2 2 low low 6 8 x
56 Scale down the amount of free online content 2 3 low low 6 8
57 Diversify beyond a daily paper 2 3 medium low 5 8 x
58 Offer more creative digital advertising options 2 4 low low 5 7
59 Expand financial section to offer personal coaching and advice 2 4 low medium 5 7 x
60 Have a satirical news section 2 4 low low 5 7 x
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61 Host local business events 2 4 low medium 5 7 x
62 Add a paywall 2 4 low low 5 7
63 Launch a weekly digital-only newsletter 2 4 low medium 5 7
64 Feature archived content 2 4 low low 5 7 x
65 Add push notifications for breaking news stories 2 4 medium medium 5 6
66 Beef up investigative reporting team 2 4 medium medium 5 6 x
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67 Simplify mobile layout 2 4 medium medium 5 6

68 Start neighborhood volunteer initiatives 2 4 medium medium 5 6 x
69 Renovate office space to inspire the team 2 5 high high 2 2 x
70 Partner with local TV station for joint stories 2 5 low low 5 6 x
71 Make local government updates easier to understand 2 5 low low 5 6 x
72 Improve commenting functionality 2 5 low low 5 6
73 Redesign mobile ad experience 2 5 low low 5 6
No

74 Test and review products 2 5 low medium 5 5 x

75 Publish a guest celebrity editorial series 2 5 medium low 5 5 x
76 Host a festival 2 5 medium medium 4 5 x
77 Offer a Spanish-language version 2 6 high high 4 4 x
78 Create a podcast network 2 6 low low 5 5
79 Expand community outreach by volunteering with youth 2 6 low low 5 5 x
80 Increase children's content 2 6 low low 5 5 x
81 Start a tween news feature 2 6 low low 5 5 x
Do

82 Turn journalists into “personalities” 2 6 low medium 4 5 x

83 Partner with another local paper to expand regional reach 2 6 low high 4 4 x
84 Offer shopping (in conjunction with an e-commerce company) 2 6 medium medium 4 4
85 Partner with local papers to create and share an online platform 2 6 medium medium 4 4
86 Become compliant with most recent accessibility standards 2 6 medium high 4 4

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87 Give customization options for online viewing (full scroll vs. chapters, 2 6 medium low 4 5
etc.)

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88 Create an associated article pop-up 2 6 medium low 4 5
89 Increase international presence 2 7 high medium 4 4 x
90 Create a polling feature 2 7 low medium 4 4
91 Start a travel club 2 7 low low 4 4 x
92 Support local social/political activism 2 7 low low 4 4 x
93 Make all front page news stories into 144-character headlines 2 7 low low 2 2 x

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94 Create mobile-only content 2 7 medium medium 4 4
95 Add digital archives of historical local stories and artifacts 2 7 medium medium 4 4
96 Offer delivery services-for-hire 2 7 medium medium 4 4 x
97 Launch a TV app 2 7 medium medium 4 4
98 Offer commercial printing services-for-hire 2 7 medium low 2 2 x
99 Launch a specialty/niche magazine 2 7 medium high 4 4 x

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100 Add a restaurant review section with a mapping feature 2 7 medium medium 4 4
101 Customize the user experience for the landing page 2 7 medium medium 4 4
102 Sync the paper's events page to a subscriber's personal calendar 2 7 medium low 4 4
103 Implement a policy of rolling design changes 2 8 high high 4 3 x
104 Order-on-demand print articles 2 8 high low 4 4 x
105 Restructure the paper to drop the business and arts sections 2 8 low low 4 4 x
106 Partner with a larger, more well-known paper 2 8 medium high 4 4 x
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107 Create a specialty spinoff website 2 9 high medium 4 3
108 Become a news satire publication 2 9 low medium 1 1 x
109 Print a paper with only pictures and not words 2 9 medium medium 2 2 x
110 Improve mobile speed 1 3 medium medium 4 7
111 Hire better writers 1 3 medium medium 4 7 x
112 Improve our sports section 1 3 medium low 4 7 x
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113 Enhance instructions on mobile devices 1 4 low low 4 6

114 Limit the length of stories 1 4 low low 4 6
115 Increase our subscription price 1 4 low low 4 6 x
116 Switch to monthly pricing 1 4 low low 4 6 x
117 Restructure staff and bring in more digital expertise 1 5 high medium 3 4 x
118 Double the size of the workforce 1 5 high high 2 2 x
119 Publish a series focusing on seniors and technology 1 5 low low 3 5 x
No

120 Offer more subscription options 1 5 low medium 3 5 x

121 Host local trivia nights 1 5 low low 3 5 x
122 Add a crossword puzzle 1 5 low low 2 2 x
123 Add personal advice for users 1 5 low low 3 5 x
124 Improve visual appeal with more icons on our mobile layout 1 5 low low 3 5
125 Lower subscription price 1 5 low low 3 5 x
126 Create a weekend-only subscription option 1 5 low low 3 5 x
127 Offer reduction in price for longer subscriptions 1 5 low low 3 5 x
Do

128 Offer device-centric subscription options 1 5 medium low 3 5

129 Sell branded calendars, aprons, hats, etc. 1 5 medium low 3 5 x
130 Let users control font size on mobile 1 6 low low 3 5
131 Host recipe contests 1 6 low low 3 5 x
132 Add like and share functionality to the website and other platforms 1 6 low medium 3 4
133 Make subscribing easier from a mobile device 1 6 low low 3 5

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134 Keep article titles to a maximum of five words 1 6 low low 2 2
135 Decrease frequency of print offering 1 6 low medium 3 4 x

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136 Offer discounts to local businesses with a subscription 1 6 low low 3 3 x
137 Enable bookmarking feature for online readers 1 6 low low 3 5
138 Add personal archives of stories 1 6 medium medium 3 4
139 Publish news features focusing on sister towns 1 6 medium medium 3 4 x
140 Enhance the online weather feature 1 6 medium low 3 4

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141 Enable people to connect to the paper through their social media 1 6 medium medium 3 4
accounts
142 Increase syndication 1 7 high medium 2 3 x
143 Add more "best of" and "top 10" lists for mobile 1 7 low medium 3 4
144 Create a book club 1 7 low low 3 4 x
145 Increase size and visibility of search bar 1 7 low low 2 2
146 Offer dynamic, enhanced obituaries 1 7 low low 2 2 x

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147 Create content for pet owners 1 7 low low 3 4 x
148 Add a help bot 1 7 medium medium 3 3
149 Start a summer internship program 1 7 medium low 3 3 x
150 Close the online version of the newspaper 1 8 high medium 2 3 x
151 Have a monthly news contest 1 8 low low 3 3 x
152 Have people’s phone alerts go off whenever there is breaking news 1 8 low low 1 1
153 Increase subscription prices 500% 1 8 low low 2 2 x
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154 Auto-play all videos 1 8 medium low 3 4
155 Offer longer movie trailers for online subscribers 1 8 medium low 3 3
156 Make the print version free 1 9 high low 2 3 x
157 Move newspaper off-shore 1 9 high low 2 3 x
158 Free subscription for a year 1 9 high low 1 1 x
159 Invest in a Citizen Sun-themed restaurant chain 1 9 high high 2 2 x
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160 Increase hours of sales team 1 9 high low 1 1 x

161 Provide coverage only of reality television 1 9 high medium 2 2 x
162 Give out new phones to all subscribers 1 9 high high 1 1 x
163 Make our newspapers scented 1 9 high low 1 1 x
164 Offer a free hot dog with each subscription 1 9 low low 1 1 x
165 Loosen editorial standards 1 9 low low 1 1 x
166 Use more exclamation points 1 9 low low 1 1 x
No

167 Print the newspaper on fluorescent pink paper 1 9 low low 1 1 x

168 Sell newspapers as insulation 1 9 low low 1 1 x
169 Provide instructions for making paper hats 1 9 low low 1 1 x
170 Make all of the online advertisements pop ups 1 9 medium low 1 1
Do

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Appendix C: Initiatives and Testing

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Some initiatives produce ideas with a complete idea profile, while others produce ideas that must be
tested to fill out the idea profile table.

Initiative Ideas…

Run an innovation bootcamp with an internal team. Come with complete profile

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Meet in person with valued customers. Must be tested to complete the profile

Kick off a project with a local design innovation firm. Come with complete profile

Pose questions to The Citizen Sun social media followers. Must be tested to complete the profile

Run an innovation contest on [Link]. Must be tested to complete the profile

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Run an internal contest with The Citizen Sun employees. Must be tested to complete the profile

Run a special project with leading advertisers. Must be tested to complete the profile

Hire a digital marketing expert. Come with complete profile

Run an idea "hackathon" at a local startup event. Must be tested to complete the profile

Fund an internal entrepreneurial group to develop ideas. Come with complete profile
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Develop a special project with a leading tech firm in Silicon Valley. Come with complete profile

Give employees more time (15%) to develop creative ideas. Must be tested to complete the profile

Appendix D: Initiatives and Associated Mode

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Mode Initiative

Specialist Run an innovation bootcamp with an internal team.

Specialist Meet in person with valued customers.

Network Kick off a project with a local design innovation firm.

No

Community Pose questions to The Citizen Sun social media followers.

Community Run an innovation contest on [Link].

Venture Run an internal contest with The Citizen Sun employees.

Network Run a special project with leading advertisers.

Specialist Hire a digital marketing expert.

Community Run an idea "hackathon" at a local startup event.

Do

Venture Fund an internal entrepreneurial group to develop ideas.

Network Develop a special project with a leading technology firm in Silicon Valley.

Venture Give employees more time (15%) to develop creative ideas.

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Appendix E: Idea Distributions for Each Initiative and Mandate

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No
Do

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Appendix E: Supplemental Materials

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To better understand the innovation process and modes of innovation, instructors may wish to assign the
following articles, books and cases but only after students conduct the simulation.

As a starter, the following article lays out the four different modes of innovation that also occur in the
simulation:

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• Marion, Tucker J., & Fixson, Sebastian K. (2016). The 4 main ways to innovate in a digital economy.
Harvard Business Review, online. [Link]

A more in-depth treatment of all four modes and the implications for managers who want their
organizations to engage in multiple innovation modes is provided in the following book:

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• Marion, Tucker J., & Fixson, Sebastian K. (Forthcoming). The Innovation Navigator: Exploring and
Exploiting New Modes of Innovation: Toronto University Press.

A good overview of the mechanics of innovation contests is provided in this book:

• Terwiesch, Christian, & Ulrich, Karl T. (2009). Innovation tournaments - creating and selecting
exceptional opportunities. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
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The work by Henk Chesbrough, Karim Lakhani, and others explores the effect of several governance
choices of open innovation processes:

• Boudreau, Kevin J., Lacetera, Nicola, & Lakhani, Karim R. (2011). Incentives and problem
uncertainty in innovation contests: An empirical analysis. Management Science, 57(5), 843-863.
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• Boudreau, Kevin J., & Lakhani, Karim R. (2013). Using the crowd as an innovation partner. Harvard
Business Review(April), 60-69.

• Chesbrough, H. (2003). Open innovation, Boston: Harvard Business Press.

• King, Andrew, & Lakhani, Karim R. (2013). Using open innovation to identify the best ideas. Sloan
No

Management Review, 55(1), 41-48.

• Lakhani, Karim R., Lifschitz-Assaf, Hila, & Tushman, Michael L. (2013). Open innovation and
organizational boundaries: Task decomposition, knowledge distribution and the locus of
innovation Handbook of economic organization (pp. 355-382).

Two recent short articles discussing the limitations that open innovation can exhibit in practice:
Do

• Fixson, Sebastian K., & Marion, Tucker J. (2016). A case study of crowdsourcing gone wrong.
Harvard Business Review, online. [Link]

• van Alstyne, Marshall W., Di Fiore, Alessandro, & Schneider, Simon. (2017). 4 mistakes that kill
crowdsourcing efforts. Harvard Business Review, online. [Link]
crowdsourcing-efforts

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Other relevant cases, articles, books, etc.:

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• Bayus, Barry L. (2013). Crowdsourcing new product ideas over time: An analysis of the dell
ideastorm community. Management Science, 59(1), 226-244.

• Erat, S. Forthcoming. Making the Best Idea Better: The Role of Idea Pool Structure. Production and
Operations Management.

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• Marks, M. Hoyt, D. (2013). Quirky: A business based on making invention accessible. Stanford
Graduate School of Business Case Study.

• Reitzig, Markus. (2011). Is your company choosing the best innovation ideas? MIT Sloan
Management Review, 52(4), 47-52.

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• Von Hippel, E. (2005). Democratizing innovation. MIT press.

Appendix F: Release Notes

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Date Simulation Changes Teaching Note Changes
November 14, 2018 N/A Updated links related to HBSP
website

August 16, 2017 Released simulation Released Teaching Note

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Endnotes
1 Tucker J. Marion and Sebastian K. Fixon, “The 4 Main Ways to Innovate in a Digital Economy,” Harvard Business Review (June
2016), Web. [Link]

2 See Tucker J. Marion and Sebastian K. Fixon, The Innovation Navigator (Toronto: Toronto University Press, Forthcoming).

3 Christian Terwiesch and Karl T. Ulrich, Innovation Tournaments: Creating and Selecting Exceptional Opportunities (Boston: Harvard
No

Business Review Press, 2009).

4 Karim R. Lakhani and Eric von Hippel, “How open source software works: ‘free’ user-to-user assistance,” Research Policy 32
(June 2003): 923–943.

5 Woojung Chang and Steven A. Taylor, “The Effectiveness of Customer Participation in New Product Development: A Meta-
Analysis,” Journal of Marketing 80 (January 2016): 47–64.

6 Christian Terwiesch and Yi Xu, “Innovation Contests, Open Innovation, and Multiagent Problem Solving,” Management Science
54 (July 2008): 1529–1543.
Do

7 Kevin J. Boudreau, Nicole Lacetera, and Karim R. Lakhani, “Incentives and Problem Uncertainty in Innovation Contests: An
Empirical Analysis,” Management Science 57 (May 2011): 843–863.

8 Joel West and Marcel Bogers, “Leveraging External Sources of Innovation: A Review of Research on Open Innovation,” Journal of
Product Innovation Management 31 (July 2014): 814–831.

9 See Markus Reitzig, “Is Your Company Choosing the Best Innovation Ideas?” MIT Sloan Management Review 52 (June 2011): 47–
52.

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