Conceptualization of hackathon for innovation management

Abstract

Although hackathons have become a popular phenomenon beyond the IT industry, the current use of the concept is ambiguous. However, concept definitions are essential building blocks of theory. Therefore, this paper addresses the hackathon as a concept. Following the conceptualization model of Podsakoff et al. (2016), this paper studies the attributes of the hackathon concept. Specifically, it focuses on the necessary and sufficient concept structure of the hackathon as a phenomenon and presents the eight necessary and sufficient attributes of the hackathon. Moreover, it proposes three main categories for the eight attributes, i.e. the concepts of 1) short time-bounded event, 2) coopetition, and 3) radical collocation. Furthermore, this exploratory paper defines the hackathon as an innovation contest. The results will benefit both academics studying hackathons and companies who aim to enhance their innovation management, especially in the fuzzy front end of innovation.