Co-Creation for Impact: How to design multi-stakeholder initiatives for tackling wicked problems

The Ph.D. study sets out to explore how to unlock seemingly unsolvable societal and business challenges and co-create sustainable and impactful solutions. It does so through an exploration of the nature of the co-creation challenges in the cases and through the development and application of a co-creation initiative design framework. Thus, the nature of this study correlates with its content in that it is both a study and an active engagement. On the one hand, the focus of the research has been studies of the main cases in this Ph.D. to extract and deduct knowledge and insights from the endeavors of the cases. On the other hand, this study has played an active role in contributing to practice by exploring and developing the cases though active engagement. In this juxtaposition of theory and practice, thinking and doing, this study has cross-pollinated academic knowledge and methodologies for practice.
To sum the conclusion of this study, there are a number of relevant findings to the field of study. Along with such findings are a few essential insights that ought to be pointed out as main contributions: Firstly, there are three levels of co-creation to understand and consider when embarking on co-creation: a societal, an organizational and an individual level. Secondly, setting up co-creation initiatives calls for novel methods for identifying, inviting and engaging relevant sectorial actors. Thirdly, co-creation initiatives will lead to a mindset shift of the leaders and employees working in co-creation initiatives. These core insights that have been highlighted above cater to academia and to practice. However, an additional finding that is uniquely essential to academia and to the theory of the current fields should be highlighted. This insight points to how development within this field in academia pulls towards a trajectory of an inter-organizational and cross-sectoral approach to problem-solving.