1st Seminar on Mechanism Synthesis Research

Theme: Designing mechanisms to encourage user participation: LEGO, cities, and fashion

Date: 2023/09/12, 16:00h ~ 18:30h

Place: Haseko-Kuma Hall, Engineering Bldg. 11, Hongo Campus, The University of Tokyo

1F, Building 11, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

Format: Hybrid (face-to-face + online)

Presentation Details

In the first seminar, we reported the results of our analysis of the mechanism of an online platform called LEGO CUUSOO/LEGO IDEAS, which a Danish toy manufacturer offers to its users worldwide. This platform, where users and companies collaborate to realize new products, was initially launched in 2008 exclusively in Japan. From the perspective of the Danish headquarters at the time, this was just another experimental trial that was likely to fail. However, 15 years later, co-creation between users and companies has grown into a profitable business and an important earner for the company's global expansion. The platform has a mechanism in place to encourage user participation. For example, the company has pledged to pay royalties based on sales generated by participating users' product suggestions. This is the first time the company has explicitly stated a reward system for users. We examine how such a reward mechanism affected the original relationship between the company that produces and the user that consumes, compare how the user and the company behaved in each case with different reward schemes, and consider how the difference in mechanisms might change the relationship between them. We compare how users and companies behaved in each case and consider what changes in the relationship between companies and users might result from differences in the mechanisms. In addition to the contents of the book "Management of Online Platforms: Designing Mechanisms to Promote User Participation" published in August 2023, this presentation introduced the ongoing research that has been conducted since then. Moreover, experts in game theory and design theory were invited to add the context of their ongoing research on cities and fashion to discuss the applicability of mechanism research.

Program

Moderator: Hiroki Takahashi (Assistant Professor, University of Tsukuba)

16:00　Opening Remarks: Nariaki Nishino (Professor, The University of Tokyo)

16:15　Designing Mechanisms for User Participation: A Case Study of LEGO CUUSOO/ LEGO IDEAS: Kohei Nishiyama (Project Researcher, The University of   Tokyo)

17:00　Discussant 1: Ryuichiro Ishikawa (Professor, Waseda University)

17:15　Discussant 2: Ichiro Nagasaka (Professor, Kobe University)

17:30　Discussion

18:15　Open questions

18:30　Closing Remarks

Organized by: Nishino Laboratory, Department of Technology Management for Innovation, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

Supported by: School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo

Inquiries about the seminar

seminar[at] css.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp (Please replace [at] with @)