Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences j 2018 Cross-National Network Diffusion of Crowdsourcing Innovation Policy: Peer to Patent Helen K. Liu The University of Hong Kong
[email protected] Abstract government initiatives to promote transparency and data access [5, 6], less attention has been paid to This study examines network factors in the cross- smaller yet innovative policy diffusions that have national diffusion of a recent crowdsourcing taken place concurrently with the open government innovation in the public sector, called Peer to Patent. movement [7]. Policy diffusion theory, as applied to informational Previous research has demonstrated the diffusion network exchange, suggests that information about process underlying large-scale adoption of a innovation will be communicated through social technological innovation across countries e.g., [8, 9]. networks among policy decision makers. Building on However, we know little about the cross-national case studies from five countries—the United States, diffusion of small-scale innovation, especially at the Australia, South Korea, Japan, and the United agency level, which is less covered by the media and Kingdom—that have adopted Peer to Patent, this thus less visible to the public. study finds that the pattern of adoption is best Furthermore, previous studies have demonstrated explained by the underlying network structure of that policy entrepreneurs, institutional designs, and professional and institutional actors that allow culture are important contributors to the process of policymakers to exchange ideas and learn from innovation diffusion [9]. Bennett (1997) argues that others. The informational network framework transnational learning and communication fulfill includes epistemic communities, international distinct and essential roles in policy diffusion.