XIX Congreso ALTEC, 27 a 29 de octubre - 2021, Lima, Perú

Open innovation driven by hackathon: A social innovation case

Colenci Neto, Alfredo Colenci Trevelin, Ana Teresa

Faculdade de Tecnología de São Faculdade de Tecnología de
Carlos, Brasil São Carlos, Brasil
alfredo.colenci@fatec.sp.gov.br atcol@yahoo.com

Palabras clave: Open Innovation, Hackathon, Social innovation

ABSTRACT
Worldwide, the digital transformation has had a rapid impact on all types of organizations,

whether industrial, commercial or service providers, including non-governmental organizations. In

this context, organizations struggle to sustain their innovation efforts. A hackathon is one of the

tools that can help the search for innovation in alignment with the principles of open innovation. It

consists of an event in which participants collaborate intensively for a short period of time on

projects focused on solving problems and generating ideas. These events encourage creative

experimentation and can be challenge-oriented, including awards. Although the hackathon

phenomenon emerged as an effective approach to foster innovation with digital technologies, it has

gone beyond the field of computing and currently reaches other sectors that promote such events

as a way to find solutions to real problems. This article presents a bibliographic study on hackathon

and open innovation topics, and results from a field research carried out through the application of

a hackathon for students in the business management course of a technology college in a third sector

organization located in the city of São Carlos/SP, which had been suffering constant challenges to

remain sustainable. The results show that this type of event can be an intense generator of ideas for

problem solving in all, seven projects were created by a group of 47 students participating in a 32-

hour marathon which had a positive impact on the institution.

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1. INTRODUCTION
The first industrial revolution started in England in the 18th century. The invention of

machines marked the transition from the artisanal production paradigm to the series production

paradigm, changing the social and commercial structure of the time with the emergence of industry.

This change revolutionized not only the economy, with increased productivity, but also people's

daily lives. Since then, industry has undergone changes in both its production and management

systems. These transformations are not restricted to the industrial sector: they encompass all types

of organizations, including those in the third sector.

Over the past three decades, the development of information technology (IT) and its

integration into production processes has brought numerous benefits to organizations. The

industrial sector has an eminent need for the development and application of innovative and

disruptive technologies to adapt the current form of production in a scenario marked by

competitiveness, an increasing demand for personalized products, greater complexity, and reduced

costs. This new model is being discussed worldwide under the umbrella of industry 4.0

(HERMANN et.al., 2016). Furthermore, as noted by Porter (1989), with the opening of markets

that occurred in the 90s, organizations had to resort to increasingly differentiated strategies lower

costs to remain competitive.

The creation of competitive advantage is related to a company’s ability to manage its

resources in order to better position itself before their competitors (ITO, HAYASHI, GIMENEZ

AND FENSTERSEIFER 2012).

As in industry, developing countries like Brazil increasingly need support from third sector

organizations to cover for situations in which the government should act, but for some reason it

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does not (LONGARAY, 2018). These organizations have the function of helping society prosper

and evolve, aiming solely at the growth of the community without the prospect of profit. According

to Tachizawa (2014), the construction of strategic partnerships, in the third sector, seeks social

justice, which provides social transformation when combined with the aspiration for change. Within

this context, such organizations are designed to use the financial resources collected through social

actions to maintain their functioning, which is often precarious due to the lack of management

support, and are unable to sustain the full development of their activities.

The manager is responsible for establishing the strategies he will focus on in order to achieve

high performance, since it is necessary to be aware of changes and turn obstacles into opportunities.

In the various sectors of the economy, these perspectives are currently achieved through

innovation, which basically consists in the successful creation of something new, so that global

competitiveness is today defined by the ability that organizations have to innovate (Porter, 1989).

The development of new ideas has been the most effective way for organizations to

differentiate themselves from each other, as they transform such ideas into actions that generate

solutions for better results (REED, STORRUD-BARNES, & JESSUP, 2012).

Thus, the organizations’ ability to innovate, given by practices and attitudes, by the ability

to learn and adapt and by strategic and organizational skills, becomes a key factor in the relationship

with the environment (TETHER, 2003).

One of the ways adopted by modern organizations has been the establishment of

partnerships with other organizations through the expansion of relationships. This type of

cooperation, known as open innovation, has allowed the reduction of research and development

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costs as it and consists in the use of external knowledge to add value to the business

(CHERSBROUGH, 2012).

Unlike closed innovation, in which the organization does not share information with the

external market and its research and development department is used, solely within the

organization, with an end in itself, open innovation, according to Chersbrough (2012b) is “a

paradigm that assumes organizations can and must make use of both external and internal ideas, as

well as external and internal ways to reach the market, as they search for technology advancements.

This can bring advantages in several aspects, as the organization expands its strategic vision,

receives new talents, and prevents flaws in its organizational culture”.

Thus, one of the basic principles of open innovation is the recognition that not all

components of innovation originate from internal sources and that knowledge from external sources

can make an organization’s efforts broader and more effective. (WITZEMAN et al., 2006).

Interactions among organizations play an important role and can spark interest for innovation that

arises from partnerships, alliances, cooperation, joint ventures and networked organizations. One

of the ways for organizations to interact is through the promotion of hackathon events, that is, an

event in which participants collaborate intensively, for a short period, in projects focused on solving

problems and generating ideas. Tandon et al. (2017) point out that hackathon refers to an event in

which small groups of participants work intensively for a short period to generate and implement

an idea in real situations. Hackathons encourage experimentation for creativity and can be

challenge-oriented, including awards. Although the hackathon phenomenon emerged as an

effective form of encouraging innovation with digital technologies, it eventually grew beyond the

area of computing and reached other sectors that promote these events as a way to find solutions to

real problems.

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Thus, the objective of this work was to carry out a bibliographic review on the theme and,

subsequently, to present results of a case study that consisted in the application of a hackathon for

business management students, to search for solutions for the main challenges faced by a third

sector institution located in the city of São Carlos, São Paulo State, Brazil.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. OPEN INNOVATION

The difficulty of companies to remain innovative by using only their internal resources was

noted by Chesbrough (2003), who pointed out that a variety of solutions are constantly emerging

in different places in the research and development (R&D) departments of these companies. Thus,

Open Innovation, a term coined by this author, assumes that useful knowledge and innovation is

widely distributed, and organizations should explore the sources of external knowledge as a

fundamental issue in the innovation process.

Chesbrough (2003) defines open innovation as the innovation process in which industries

and organizations promote open ideas, thoughts, processes, and research, in order to improve the

development of their products, provide better services for their customers, increase efficiency and

reinforce the added value. It is the combination of internal and external ideas, as well as internal

and external paths for the market, in order to advance the development of new technologies in

products and processes.

Open innovation, as a more democratic type of platform, allows for the exploitation of

sustainable ICT solutions across industries as a larger pool of resources are included in the

development process (SOLTANI, 2014).

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More and more, there has been a transition from a closed model of research, where only the

research and development (R&D) department develops solutions, to an open and interactive model

of seeking solutions by organizations that want to remain competitive (CHESBROUGH, 2003).

One of the basic principles of open innovation is the recognition that not all components for

an innovation originate from internal sources in the organization and that knowledge from external

sources can make internal efforts broader or more effective (WITZEMAN et al., 2006).

Interactions among organizations play a relevant role and spark interest for innovation that arises

from partnerships, alliances, joint ventures and networked organizations.

Figure 1 exemplifies the difference between closed or traditional innovation and open

innovation.

Figure 1: Open innovation and closed innovation

Source: Chesbrough (2003)

Open innovation is related to the establishment of cooperation agreements with other

organizations. Gradually, organizations are forced to join with other organizations or educational

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institutions, in order to develop or absorb new technologies, develop new products, or simply keep

attune with the latest technological developments (VANHAVERBEKE, 2008).

Among the various tools used by open innovation, such as the: search for external

technologies (in universities, research laboratories), the acquisition of intellectual property,

crowdsourcing, crowdfunding and competitions, tournaments such as hackathons are powerful

tools for Open Innovation to be applied quickly and efficiently, bringing benefits to organizations.

2.2. HACKATHON

For Briscoe (2007), hackathons originally arose so that computer programmers and others

involved in software development could collaborate intensively on software projects over a short

period of time.

Nowadays, these events cover a variety of fields to encourage experimentation and

creativity, and can be oriented to challenges. In this sense, the name hackathon derives from other

nomenclatures such as ideathon, hackday, hacktec, hackfest, each with its own specificity, but all

sharing the purpose of being a marathon in which the participants generate solutions to the problems

presented.

For Alba et al. (2016), highly prestigious institutions in the world, such as NASA and the

World Bank, carry out hackathons as a way of involving citizens in solving problems. Hackathons

can be performed as a face-to-face event, remotely or in a mixed way, over the internet. NASA has

achieved excellent results in its annual hackathons because they take place remotely and allow a

large number of people to participate.

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For Komssi et al. (2015), a hackathon starts with the ideation and formation of teams, which

can be organized in person or online, prior to the event or even upon its start. Collecting and

developing ideas in advance will provide more time for coding. The organization of the teams can

take place by choosing the participant or whoever is responsible for organizing the hackathon, based

on the ideas or technologies that interest them.

Grijpink (2015), in an article by global consultancy McKinsey titled “Demystifying the

Hackathon”, claims that the best hackathons share some characteristics:

• Customer focus: a hackathon focuses on a single customer journey, which supports

a clear business target, such as speed, revenue growth or an innovative customer experience.

• Multifunctionality: hackathons bring people from different areas of the business

together to seek different ways of working on a problem. Participants may include specialists in

user experience, customer service, sales and graphic design, as well as programmers. This diversity

leads to collective thinking and deeper and faster collaboration.

• Start from scratch: Successful hackathons challenge participants to come up with a

method to solve a consumer need. There is an “intentional irreverence” in this disruption: assuming

that everything can and must be challenged.

• Focus on results: sessions that start with ideas and end with a functional prototype

that people can see and touch, such as clickable apps or a 3D printed product. Other possibilities

are developing paths for production and implementation of solutions, such as a roadmap of

capabilities to bring the final version to the market, in a predetermined time.

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• Iteration and continuity: when the team agrees to a basic experience, the developers

work on a model that the group refines and reevaluates in continuous cycles, until the new process

or application meets the desired criteria.

Figure 2 illustrates the main stages of a hackathon event which, after all the event's

organization and dissemination period, begins with the presentation of a challenge to the

participants, usually linked to real problems of an organization or society. The organizers start with

team building dynamics, a step that can be skipped when teams are formed in advance. During the

event, the teams are oriented by experienced people, called Mentors, and receive help in formatting,

validating the idea and creating the prototype. In this process, several Design Thinking techniques

can be used, such as the Business Model Canvas, empathy map, interviews, prototyping tools,

among others. At the end of the event, the teams present a pitch of their project to a panel of judges,

in a quick presentation of no more than five minutes. The best projects are awarded prizes in

recognition for their efforts.

Figure 2: Steps of a hackathon

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Source: The authors

3. METHODS

The research procedure used in this specific work started with a Bibliographic Review, to

the state of the art, to give rise to the knowledge domain already available and establish a Basic

Theoretical Reference on the theme. The review was accompanied by a case study carried out

through the application of a hackathon developed by professors and students of a College of

Technology, to search for solutions to problems presented by a third sector organization.

A random, exploratory and descriptive research was developed, with a qualitative focus.

The qualitative approach is suitable when the researcher seeks to deeply explore a complex social

phenomenon, not through numbers, but through direct involvement with the individuals surveyed

and their personal experiences, capturing these experiences in the language of the individuals

themselves (SAMPIERI et al, 2006).

4. CASE STUDY: THE APPLICATION OF A HACKATON AS AN OPEN

INNOVATION TOOL IN A THIRD SECTOR ORGANIZATION

The participating entity is a non-profit organization founded in October 2017, in the Cidade

Aracy district of the city of São Carlos, SP. Their Project serves approximately one hundred

children and adolescents, aged between five and sixteen years. The project began with a small group

of children at the program coordinator's home, which soon grew into a home of their own.

Currently, the entire program runs with the support of volunteers who have the mission of

providing the socially disadvantaged public with all the tools necessary for the discovery of talents,

intelligence and potential, being a reference for the formation of individuals prepared and

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committed to personal, family, and social development. In this sense, participants are provided with

classes on theater, reading, sports activities, English, tutoring and meals. In addition, training is

given in garden management, dressmaking and sewing, among others.

Like most non-governmental institutions, there is a shortage of human and financial

resources, which the NGO constantly relieves by promoting fundraising actions such as clothing

bazaars, pizza sales, receiving donations of groceries and clothing, albeit informally and without

precise control.

In a meeting with professors and students, the NGO described their challenges and asked

for help, since the participating college is a public institution that teaches courses in the business

management area. Teachers linked to INOVA CPS projects from RJI (Full-Time Scheme) and

AAPs disciplines (autonomous project activities) from Fatec/ CEETEPS suggested that a hackathon

event be held to generate ideas for the challenges described by the NGO.

To carry out the event, the NGO presented the various difficulties and challenges that should

be addressed by the hackathon participants, among which were the following: their vegetable

garden was in a precarious situation and in a small space; the school library had a limited collection

and no control over the loans; the monthly bazaar had low adherence due to insufficient publicity;

the impossibility of receiving donations and financial resources from society; the inexistence of a

computer lab; lack of visibility of the NGO's works through a website and social networks. In

addition, different social problems were identified in the institution participants, mainly students

with learning disabilities, parents' absence, relationship problems, lack of adequate food, among

others.

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For the hackathon, Fatec conceived a 32-hour event called Ideathon, which took place inside

São Carlos Iguatemi Shopping Mall in August 2019. The event counted on the support of a local

technology company and of the mall itself, which paid for the infrastructure through donations of

T-shirts and gifts and the loan of the venue and sound equipment free of charge. Because it is a

place of intense circulation, the institutions were exposed to more than four thousand people who

visited the mall over the weekend.

The event involved more than two hundred and fifty people, with 47 students participating

in the teams, eight mentors (managers, teachers, and businessmen), 4 referees, and visitors and

observers.

During the opening session, the NGO director presented the program and the challenges to

the participants. Soon thereafter, seven teams were formed and began the ideation stage of the

projects. The volunteer mentors assisted the teams in modeling the projects using the Business

Model Canvas tool and Design Thinking techniques.

In total, seven projects were developed to generate solutions for the NGO, and the

corresponding teams presented the pitch of their ideas at the end of the event. The presentations

took place inside the mall's movie theater and were evaluated by a panel of four people who selected

the three best projects.

The projects presented were:

1) Godfather Donation: Creation of a financial donation platform linked to the institution's

website and with payment checkouts.

2) Robot-Kids: Didactic and pedagogical project for teaching robotics to NGO students using

Arduino boards.

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3) Planting hope: Project related to the institution's vegetable garden, in which students learn

the art of growing different species by creating plant seedlings for selling to interested

parties.

4) ColorArt: 24/7 online platform for cataloging clothes received as donations, cleaning and

display of items for sale (permanently active, not just on bazaar days).

5) Rare Jewelry: project to restructure the school library as a way to enable students to take

books home, inducing the responsibility of taking care of the material and integrating the

student with parents.

6) Friends of the Heart: Through this project, students can develop theater plays based on the

NGO's day-to-day activities and present them in partner companies and other places in the

community, as a way to publicize the work performed at the institution.

7) Heart Integration: A project that opens the doors of the institution so that the children’s

families can learn crafts such as dressmaking and sewing, cooking and others.

It is worth mentioning that during Ideathon a businessman from the city, touched by the event,

donated five computers to the Institution lab. In addition, the College was able to strengthen ties

with the community and had its name associated to a successful event visible to more than forty

thousand visitors who went to the mall. Indirectly, it is expected that the event helped strengthen

and disseminate the entrepreneurial culture over the entire academic community.

After the event, the seven projects resulting from this Ideathon were implemented at the

institution through the College's Enactus Team.

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5. CONCLUSIONS

Bearing in mind that the digital transformation that affects today's society has generated profound

impacts in all economic sectors, whether in industry, services or NGOs, organizations have been

looking for ways to avoid obsolescence by innovating in their processes. Thus, one of the key

perceptions of recent times concerns the way in which organizations have regarded innovation.

In face of the great challenge of not being able to innovate with only the people and internal

knowledge, organizations can consider the concept of open innovation and seek beyond

institutional limits in order to solve their problems. As presented in this work, there are different

tools within the concept of open innovation that can be used to search for organizational solutions

in an open system. Among these tools, the hackathon appears as a worthy strategic option for all

involved, as it is carried out over a short period of time, allows for teamwork in the development

of ideas related to real situations, and generates feasible solutions to the problems presented. In

addition, it is financially viable, as it does not require large investments.

Fatec / CEETEPS, in order to apply the tool and analyze its results, developed the event

Ideathon, which enabled the effective participation of people with different profiles. Students,

employees, managers, teachers, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts joined oriented activities with the

common goal of helping an organization in need of solutions. In addition to solving the problems

of the organization, this project also contributed to a mutual learning environment where students

and other participants were offered a learning opportunity based on real problems, within the scope

of today’s technology colleges, that is, the use of active methodologies and real experiences.

Moreover, this event created opportunities for the formation of new partnerships and cooperation

with companies, as it allowed a significant College/Market integration through the visibility given

by advertising in the mall and in the media.

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Events of this nature may include different types of organizations. Just as the NGO was the

subject of this study, future events may be held in favor of startups, private companies or

government offices, regardless of the market segment and size.

Future perspectives include the application of a hackathon in a company of the service

sector.

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