Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore collaboration in open innovation (OI) communities. The paper focuses on the following two research problems: how can users be motivated to collaborate in OI communities and what kind of tools and methods can support collaboration in OI communities? Design/methodology/approach – The exploratory case study includes three innovation intermediaries originated in three different countries: France, The Netherlands and Finland. The primary data source consists of the open-ended questions posted to the maintainers and users by e-mail. The data include five responses from the maintainers and 12 responses from the users. The secondary source is the internet document review. The classification of the factors in the preliminary framework is derived from reading and rereading the answers of the respondents until the themes started emerging from the data. Thereafter, the data are coded according to the chosen themes. Findings – Results suggest that monetary rewards are not always the best way to motivate contributing users. Instead, contributors appreciate many intangible factors, such as community cooperation, learning new ideas and having entertainment. Contributors also appreciate good support and the right cooperation tools from their service provider. Research limitations/implications – The data are based on three cases and a limited amount of participants. Therefore, it may be that in gathering empirical data from a larger group of cases, some new factors will be found. Practical implications – Companies should provide community members with tools that are easy to use, allowing people to express themselves and share their personal details. It seems to be important that maintainers are involved as visible members of a community, which includes telling about themselves in a more detailed way. Originality/value – This paper is one of the first papers focusing on the collaboration perspective of OI communities.

In order to attract and enhance users' commitment to participate in online open innovation communities, it is important to know what types of motivators are important for the members. Both monetary and non-monetary rewards can be used for motivating participation. In this study we focus on studying the role of rewarding in online open innovation intermediaries. The data was collected by interviews with the community maintainers of three open innovation intermediaries and by a web survey in the communities maintained by them. In the studied communities, the web survey respondents found monetary rewarding important, as well as non-monetary rewarding based on the quality of ideas. According to the maintainers' interviews, combinations of monetary and non-monetary rewarding are important. In addition, we analysed the rewarding mechanisms in 12 open innovation communities. We found that both monetary and non-monetary rewarding methods are used in the studied open innovation intermediaries.

Offering products as a service is a way to implement circular economy principles in business models and promote sustainability. However, in many markets, the model is still in its infancy in terms of market maturity and lacks customer acceptance. More understanding is needed of how product-as-a-service companies can enhance and reconfigure their competitive position by proposing meaningful customer value. For this purpose, this study focuses on customer value propositions (CVPs) as a strategic management concept in the circular economy. The aim of the study is to outline a deconstruction framework for systematically identifying the strategically manageable components of CVPs in circular product-as-a-service business models. The framework establishes a link between the elements of circular product-as-a-service business models and competitive CVPs. The framework is developed and validated with seven product-as-a-service business cases in the textile and clothing industry context. The results of the study provide insights into how product-as-a-service companies in the textile field aim to differentiate, how they structure customer value by identifying customer benefits and sacrifices, and what kind of resources and capabilities are needed for competing in the circular economy context.