Educational Hackathons as Pedagogical Systems of Co-Creation: Stakeholder Engagement for Sustainable Innovation Outputs
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23726/cij.2026.1838Keywords:
Educational hackathons, co-creation, innovation, quintuple helixAbstract
Educational hackathons are integrated into higher education (HE), yet their contribution to sustainable innovation beyond ideation remains unclear. This study examines educational hackathons as pedagogical systems of co-creation, asking how external stakeholder engagement relates to co-creation maturity and which practices support sustainable innovation outputs. Using collaborative autoethnography (CAE), two innovation educators examined 17 hackathons conducted in Finnish HE institutions between 2016 and 2026. The cross-case analysis identified four levels of external stakeholder engagement. Greater engagement across hackathon phases was associated with more sustainable innovation outputs and process development. Weak stakeholder engagement or inadequate post-hackathon phases left student-generated ideas and prototypes underused, constituting a recurring “torso problem” in educational hackathons. The study contributes to co-creation research in HE by applying the dimensions of stakeholder value logic, relational design, and learning orchestration to educational hackathons and by identifying stakeholder engagement and post-hackathon continuation as practices supporting the development of ideas into implementable innovation.
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