Innovation systems have seen diverse actors attempting to tame the Covid‐19 crisis, under varying degrees of government direction. Largely neglected in scholarly and public attention, however, are ‘bottom‐up’ solutions arising from the periphery of innovation systems. Drawing on inductive case research on a fringe doctor who invented the idea of the drive‐through testing system, and two university student teams that developed coronavirus applications, this study examines how peripheral actors generate innovative, bottom‐up solutions at speed in a time of crisis. Our findings reveal that, in a crisis situation, bottom‐up solutions transpire on the basis of three innovation drivers: (a) peripheral status, expediting the commence of innovation activities; (b) interdisciplinary collaboration, enabling access to a greater spectrum of knowledge and perspectives; and (c) prior knowledge, prescribing the direction of solution generation. We also identify that system intermediaries support the innovation activities of peripheral actors, thereby helping bottom‐up solutions to become more customer facing. Such functions of intermediaries include demand articulation, technical assistance, and promulgation of generated solutions. Our findings offer theoretical implications for the literature on innovation in a time of crisis and practical implications for governments and organizations preparing themselves for the potential second wave of coronavirus emergencies, or even a completely new form of future crisis.

中文翻译：

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危机时刻的自下而上的解决方案：韩国的Covid-19案例

在政府不同程度的指导下，创新体系已经看到各种参与者试图应对Covid-19危机。然而，在学术和公众关注中被忽视的却是创新系统外围产生的“自下而上”的解决方案。借鉴一位发明过驱动测试系统想法的边缘医生和两个开发冠状病毒应用程序的大学生团队的归纳案例研究，本研究研究了外围参与者如何在短时间内快速生成自底向上的创新解决方案。危机。我们的发现表明，在危机情况下，自下而上的解决方案在以下三个创新驱动因素的基础上转变：（a）外围状态，加快创新活动的启动；（b）跨学科合作，使人们能够获取更多的知识和观点；（c）先验知识，规定解决方案生成的方向。我们还发现，系统中介机构支持外围参与者的创新活动，从而帮助自下而上的解决方案成为更多面向客户的解决方案。中介机构的此类功能包括需求表达，技术援助和已发布解决方案的发布。我们的发现为危机时期的创新文献提供了理论上的启示，并为政府和组织为潜在的第二次冠状病毒紧急事件甚至是未来危机的全新形式作准备提供了实际意义。