HackerEarth: Open Innovation Management Platform

Srinivasan R, Sandeep Lakshmipathy, Padmavathi Koride

The case study on HackerEarth traces the evolution of an open innovation management platform, the different enterprise issues related to innovation management or new product introduction that it could help address and the challenges that still persist when it comes to organizations embracing open innovation. The case also illustrates how a two-sided platform that started out with the recruitment assistance model evolved into one that could assist organizations to even more seamlessly connect with external innovators who could help bring about breakthrough innovations. It helps the reader understand how the platform moved up the value chain by leveraging the same two sides, but by helping address higher order challenges wherein enterprises needed new ways of keeping up with the demands for innovation in products and services. The case can be used to teach the basics of multi-sided platform business models, the different actors in the platform business and the concept of network effects. It should help the students appreciate the differences between the pipeline and platform business models, and how a platform business model can bring in additional competitive differentiation to enterprises that leverage its services.