Innovating organizations struggle to select suitable co-creators and their ideas. Co-creating market relevance is challenging, as one's own contributions often lead to evaluation biases, such as the “IKEA Effect – When Labor Leads to Love,” the foundation of this book. Transcending organizational boundaries requires transcending individual evaluation. Intersubjectivity is essential for this step. This work suggests using intersubjectivity as a concept for more efficient open innovation beyond individual biases. The exploratory sequential research design aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of evaluation biases and the concept of intersubjectivity in open innovation. It begins with qualitative inquiry, including a narrative literature review and expert interviews, followed by the identification and empirical testing of novel intersubjectivity-related variables through laboratory and field experiments. In addition to its theoretical implications, this book presents a typology of contexts requiring intersubjectivity and provides a working model to guide organizations and intermediaries in their co-creation practices.

Dr. Melanie Oßwald works as a science policy advisor with a focus on innovation management. She graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg and at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), where she also obtained her doctorate in Information Systems, Innovation & Value Creation.