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How does crowd interaction stimulate knowledge contribution behavior in crowdsourcing innovation communities? The serial mediating effect of absorptive capacity
Abstract
Purpose
Based on social network theory and knowledge management theories, the study aims to investigate the correlation between crowd interaction and knowledge contribution behavior, and how the serial moderating effects of absorptive capacity affect this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the research model, this study conducts empirical research on the crowd interaction network of the MIUI community. The negative binomial regression model, suitable for processing discrete data, serves to examine the main effects of crowd interaction, absorptive capacity and knowledge contribution behavior.
Findings
The findings reveal that, in a crowdsourcing innovation community, crowd interaction has an inverted U-shaped relationship with knowledge innovation behavior and knowledge sharing behavior. Both potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity play a significant positive role in the knowledge contribution behavior of crowds. Crowd interaction can enhance the absorptive capacity of crowds, which can convert crowd interaction strengths into knowledge contribution behavior in four ways.
Research limitations/implications
The research is based on the data from the MIUI community, and without the consideration of the quality of the interaction. Moreover, the study only examined the role of micro variables and failed to try to explore the macro variables’ effects.
Practical implications
The managers should guide the crowds to construct high-quality channels for knowledge acquisition, establish multiple feedback mechanisms and introduce gamification elements to stimulate crowds’ willingness to continue innovation.
Social implications
The study confirms the role of crowd interaction in stimulating knowledge contribution behavior and the serial mediating effect of absorptive capacity. In addition, the results indicate that the relationship between crowd interaction and knowledge contribution behavior is not always linear.
Originality/value
The study reveals the “black box” of relationships between crowd interaction and knowledge contribution behavior, enriching the theory of crowdsourcing innovation. It also provides practical guidance for how to better stimulate crowds’ knowledge contribution behavior in crowdsourcing innovation communities.
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Crowdsourcing has evolved as an organizational approach to distributed problem solving and innovation. As contests are embedded in online communities and evaluation rights are assigned to the crowd, community members face a tension: They find themselves exposed to both competitive motives to win the contest prize and collaborative participation motives in the community. The competitive motive suggests they may evaluate rivals strategically according to their self-interest, the collaborative motive suggests they may evaluate their peers truthfully according to mutual interest. Using field data from Threadless on 38 million peer evaluations of more than 150,000 submissions across 75,000 individuals over 10 years and two natural experiments to rule out alternative explanations, we answer the question of how community members resolve this tension. We show that as their skill level increases, they become increasingly competitive and shift from using self-promotion to sabotaging their closest competitors. However, we also find signs of collaborative behavior when high-skilled members show leniency toward those community members who do not directly threaten their chance of winning. We explain how the individual-level use of strategic evaluations translates into important organizational-level outcomes by affecting the community structure through individuals’ long-term participation. Although low-skill targets of sabotage are less likely to participate in future contests, high-skill targets are more likely. This suggests a feedback loop between competitive evaluation behavior and future participation. These findings have important implications for the literature on crowdsourcing design, and the evolution and sustainability of crowdsourcing communities.
Funding: This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [Grant IIS-1514283] and the U.S. Office of Naval Research [Grant N00014-17-1-2542].
Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.15163 .
In practice, many firms launch winner-take-all crowdsourcing contests on a self-built or an intermediary platform to harness the wisdom of open crowds. In this study, we analyze the optimal choice of crowdsourcing mode for a contest seeker. Using game theory and auction theory approaches, we model a game between the seeker and participating solvers and derive the equilibrium decisions and payoffs under each mode. The results first show that on the self-built platform, the seeker benefits from controlling the number of solvers and providing the combination of monetary and non-monetary rewards, which meets the different preferences of solvers. Second, a large pool of solvers on the intermediary platform is not always beneficial for the seeker, such that a free-entry contest is less likely to be optimal. Moreover, some high-ability solvers will exert more effort but obtain less expected surplus when facing increased competition. Finally, we present conditions under which one of the two modes is optimal for the firm. Our findings provide firms with an appropriate mode in hosting the crowdsourcing contest.
Introduction
Industry–university–research cooperation innovation, which is often characterized by resource complementarity and the sharing technology, has become one of the most preferred innovation cooperation methods for enterprises. However, various problems still occur in the process of industry–university–research cooperations, such as poor innovation performance and difficulty in sustaining cooperation. Existing studies mostly focus on the macroscopic perspectives of geographic location, cooperation scale, concentration, and diversification of industry–university–research cooperation subjects, and fail to explore the microscopic behavioral mechanisms.
Methods
Therefore, this paper establishes the interactive behavior of industry–university–research subjects and defines its concepts and dimensions in an attempt to provide a mechanism for improving the cooperative innovation performance of industry–university–research from the micro-behavioral perspective. On the basis of theoretical analysis, this paper develops a model of the relationship between cooperative trust, cooperative communication, and cooperative innovation performance for interactive behavior, while exploring the mediating role of knowledge absorptive capacity. The model was validated by stepwise regression using data from 325 questionnaires.
Results
The paper found that cooperative trust and cooperative communication in the cooperative interactive behavior of industry–university–research positively contribute to the improvement of cooperative innovation performance. Knowledge absorptive capacity plays a partially mediating role between the interactive behaviors and cooperative innovation performance. More specifically, knowledge absorptive capacity partially mediates cooperative communication in cooperative innovation performance and completely mediates cooperative trust in cooperative innovation performance. The results are largely consistent with the results of the heterogeneity analysis of the sample.
Discussion
This paper not only explains why the cooperative innovation performance of industry–university–research is poor from the perspective of interactive behavior, but also enriches the research perspective of industry–university–research and provides theoretical support for enterprises to optimize the relationship between industry, university, and research institutes.
Crowdsourcing innovation community has become an important platform for enterprises to gather group wisdom. However, how the crowdsourcing innovation community plays a reference role in creative crowdsourcing participation is unclear. Based on the reference group theory, taking online impression management as the explanatory framework, this study explores the impact of crowdsourcing innovation community reference on the creative territory behavior, and the differences in the crowdsourcing innovation community reference effect among members of different community age groups. A total 524 valid two-stage questionnaires were collected. The empirical analysis results show that under the influence of informational reference and utilitarian reference of the crowdsourcing innovation community, community members are significantly more likely to adopt acquired impression management (AIM) than defensive impression management (DIM); under the influence of value expressive reference of the crowdsourcing innovation community, the possibility of adopting DIM behavior is significantly greater than that of adopting AIM behavior; compared with DIM behavior, AIM behavior has a more inhibitory effect on creative territory behavior. Interestingly, there are different community reference effects among members of different community age groups. In particular, the positive contribution of the elder members is not as good as that of the newcomers. The above research conclusions not only confirm the influence of crowdsourcing community reference on crowd participation decision making but also provide theoretical and practical enlightenment for exploring the cooperation mechanism of crowdsourcing innovation.
Many organizations seek to establish online innovation communities (ICs) to obtain valuable knowledge and innovative ideas, though both research and practice suggest that they also struggle to sustain continued, high-quality member participation. Designated IC moderators might be able to stimulate IC members to participate regularly and make high-quality contributions. In response to calls to integrate organizational behavior and IC research, this study addresses the impact of community moderators’ uses of transformational leadership (TFL) language on member participation. By operationalizing the TFL dimensions—charisma, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation—with language cues, this article uses an automated text analysis approach to review 64 firm-hosted ICs with 538,805 posts, analyzed with two hierarchical linear models. The findings show that moderators’ charismatic language cues enhance members’ participation quality and quantity. Although individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation increase participation quality, they decrease participation quantity. Organizations thus should assign moderators to lead ICs by using TFL language strategically, in accordance with the focal IC goals, in terms of the quality and quantity of member contributions to their innovation processes. This article contributes to the literature by exploring how leadership language in online communities can facilitate the development of innovative ideas. In addition, this study offers a more nuanced view on the effects of TFL by revealing both positive and negative outcomes in firm-hosted online ICs and it introduces a new, objective measure of TFL built on linguistic markers. This article also includes specific guidelines for how moderators can achieve effective leadership through their language use, as well as managerial implications for the effective selection, training, and support of IC moderators.
Where do valuable contributions originate from in online innovation communities? Prior research provides conflicting answers. One view, consistent with a community of practice perspective, is that valued knowledge contributions are primarily provided by central participants at the core of a community. In contrast, other research—including work adopting an open innovation perspective—predicts that valuable ideas primarily emerge from peripheral participants, those at the margins of a field of knowledge who provide novel ideas and viewpoints. We integrate these contrasting perspectives by considering two distinct forms of position: social embeddedness (a core social position within the social network of participants interacting within a community) and epistemic marginality (a peripheral epistemic position based on the network of topics discussed by a community). Analyzing contributions by 697,412 participants of 52 Stack Exchange online innovation communities, we find that both participants who are socially embedded and participants who are epistemically marginal provide knowledge contributions that are highly valued by fellow community participants. Importantly, among epistemically marginal participants, those with high social embeddedness are more likely to provide contributions valued by the community; by virtue of their epistemic marginality, these participants may offer novel ideas while by virtue of their social embeddedness they may be able to more effectively communicate their ideas to the community. Thus, the production of knowledge in an online innovation community involves a complex interaction between the novelty emanating from the epistemic periphery and the social embeddedness required to make ideas congruent with existing social and epistemic norms.
Purpose
Because the mechanism of how knowledge sharing affects organizational innovation is still unclear, the study focuses on the relationship between knowledge sharing and organizational innovation performance, with a focus on mediating role of absorptive capacity and individual creativity.
Design/methodology/approach
On the basis of the knowledge base view and organizational learning theory, the study propose a model to verify the impact of inbound and outbound knowledge sharing on organizational innovation performance based on previous research. It also analyzed how these effects were mediated by individual creativity and absorptive capacity. The study collected 166 samples to verify the theoretical model.
Findings
Results corroborate that inbound knowledge sharing cannot directly promote organizational innovation performance, and absorptive capacity has a full mediation effect between inbound knowledge sharing and organizational innovation performance. Knowledge outbound sharing, individual creativity and absorptive capacity can improve innovation performance. In addition, absorptive capacity and individual creativity have direct and significant impacts on organizational innovation performance. Moreover, absorptive capacity plays a partial mediate role between individual creativity and innovation performance. Finally, this study discusses the policy implications of the study and describes possible future research directions.
Originality/value
The paper creatively divides knowledge sharing into inbound knowledge sharing and outbound knowledge sharing and verifies that knowledge sharing does not directly affect organizational innovation performance. The mediating role of absorptive capacity and individual creativity was analysis.
The paradox of openness describes the fundamental tension between knowledge sharing and knowledge protection in open innovation. While sharing is vital for value creation, protecting is critical for value appropriation. Prior research has examined this paradox of openness from the perspective of the seeking firm, focusing on the firm-level challenges of inbound open innovation. In this article, we complement that research by illuminating the tensions between sharing and protecting in individual-level outbound open innovation, where we argue that the paradox of openness is most prevalent, yet much less well understood. Drawing on the experience of individual participants, or solvers, in intermediated crowdsourcing contests, we analyze textual data from 2,149 answers to five open-ended narrative questions embedded in a large-scale solver survey, as well as 43 in-depth interviews of solvers. Our findings indicate that individual solvers face fundamental sharing-protecting tensions that carry considerable economic and psychological costs. We also document how solvers attempt to navigate the paradox of openness by employing three formal and four informal value appropriation practices. They build elaborate configurations of these practices, which they tailor to the idiosyncrasies of each contest. They also dynamically adjust these configurations over time, as the contest and the interaction with the seeker unfold. We end by outlining how these findings contribute to a more multifaceted conceptualization and a richer understanding of the paradox of openness.
The digital age offers unprecedented opportunities for firms to access new knowledge for innovation. Both academics and managers have identified crowdsourcing (CS) as one relevant way to do so. CS for innovation involves outsourcing problem‐solving or creative tasks to the crowd. To benefit from CS, absorptive capacity (ACAP) is critical; this can be enhanced by prior knowledge and past experience with a partner. However, in the CS context, firms open themselves up to undefined, anonymous partners through the Internet, hence the development of ACAP becomes more difficult. The literature on ACAP describes how internal integration mechanisms encourage the absorption of knowledge but fails to clearly address the way in which uncommon knowledge is integrated. Although literature has acknowledged the beneficial role of a wider spectrum of influential internal and external mechanisms on uncommon knowledge, few empirical studies have addressed the distinctive effect of these mechanisms on the absorption of anonymous partners’ knowledge. To fill this gap, this study identifies relevant integration mechanisms and how they impact upon different ACAP dimensions in the CS context. Five case studies reveal the distinctive influence of integration mechanisms depending on the nature of the CS activity. Our results extend research on ACAP in the little studied digital open context, investigating the absorption of uncommon knowledge from unidentified partners. From a managerial perspective, this study shows that managers need to pay attention to integration mechanisms in order to support the absorption of knowledge from the crowd. More precisely, our study suggests that the main focus should not be on external mechanisms, but also on internal mechanisms. Finally, we open up a new theoretical debate on how these mechanisms should be combined.
Brokerage and brokering are pervasive and consequential organizational phenomena. Prevailing models underscore social structure and focus on the consequences that come from brokerage —occupying a bridging position between disconnected others in a network. In contrast, emerging models underscore social interactions and focus on brokering — the behavioral processes through which organizational actors shape others’ relationships. Our review led us to develop a novel framework as a means to integrate and organize a wide range of theoretical insights and empirical findings on brokerage and brokering. The COR (Changing Others’ Relationships) framework captures the following ideas that emerged from our review: (a) different triadic configurations enable different forms of brokering, which in turn, produce distinct effects on others’ relationships; (b) brokering is a multifaceted social influence process that can take the form of intermediation (connecting disconnected others) or modification (changing others’ preexisting relationships); (c) comparing social relations pre-brokering versus post-brokering reveals a broker’s impact; (d) brokering can influence others’ relationships positively or negatively; and (e) information and incentives are two principal means through which individuals change others’ relationships. Overall, the current review integrates multiple streams of research relevant to brokerage and brokering — including those on structural holes, organizational innovation, boundary spanning, social and political skill, workplace gossip, third-party conflict managers, and labor relations — and links each of the emergent themes identified in the current review to promising directions for future research on brokerage and brokering.
Innovation contest platforms are used to collect innovative ideas of consumers. Previous research on innovation contests has principally focused on participants’ idea generation. In this paper, we analyze ideas evaluation by participants in coopetitive crowd innovation contests within a network perspective. Using data from an innovation contest platform, we create a network of users through their interactions. Then, we measure the impact of participants’ centrality scores on received and given evaluation. Our results reveal that in-degree, out-degree and authority scores are correlated with the received positive evaluation, whereas authority is negatively correlated with the number of evaluations made. We also show that betweenness centrality and hub scores have no impact. By identifying the social influencers with network scores, we propose a methodology to reduce crowd innovation voting bias and to help managers to better select the ideas.
We combine the absorptive capacity and social network theory approaches to predict how intrafirm “whole” network characteristics affect the firm’s rate of absorption of external knowledge to produce inventions. We start from the widely accepted view that distant, externally‐developed knowledge is difficult to absorb into the focal firm’s own knowledge production. We suggest that high levels of intrafirm inventor task network diversity and task network density are essential for a diversity of knowledge inputs and coordinated actions regarding knowledge transfer which in turn, reduces problems related to the absorption of knowledge—especially in the case of knowledge that is distant from the focal firm. The results of an event history study of 113 pharmaceutical firms that engaged in technology in‐licensing from 1986‐2003 provide general support for our hypotheses.
Managerial Summary
Firms keen to keep up with an uncertain and ever‐changing industry environment, can benefit from the speedy introduction of inventions. We examine how firms absorb licensed‐in technologies to nurture the rapid development of own related inventions. We show that a firm’s absorption speed depends on the characteristics of the internal collaboration networks among the firm’s inventor employees. More specifically, technologically diverse and well‐connected inventor networks improve the firm’s ability to absorb external technologies quickly. This applies especially to externally acquired technologies that are unfamiliar to the firm. Depending on the distance of the acquired technology from the focal firm combined with speed‐inducing inventor network characteristics, our estimates suggest that firms can reduce the time needed for absorption by several months.
Purpose
This paper aims to study the effects of knowledge acquisition on innovation performance and the moderating effects of human resource management (HRM), in terms of employee retention and HRM practices, on the above-mentioned relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 129 firms operating in a wide array of sectors has been used to gather data through a standardized questionnaire for testing the hypotheses through ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models.
Findings
The results indicate that knowledge acquisition positively affects innovation performance and that HRM moderates the relationship between knowledge acquisition and innovation performance.
Originality/value
With the increasing proclivity towards engaging in open innovation, firms are likely to face some tensions and opportunities leading to a shift in the management of human resources. This starts from the assumption that the knowledge base of the firm resides in the people who work for the firm and that some HRM factors can influence innovation within firms. Despite this, there is a lack of research investigating the link between knowledge acquisition, HRM and innovation performance under the open innovation lens. This paper intends to fill this gap and nurture future research by assessing whether knowledge acquisition influences innovation performance and whether HRM moderates such a relationship.
The principles of crowdsourcing are increasingly applied in social contexts like development projects. In this study we explore a crowdsourcing community, which aims to find innovation to enhance conditions for women and girls in developing countries. Overall, the observed community shows a high level of collaboration and reciprocal dialogue. We further explore differences between teams and individual community members. While on the individual level we located four different user roles distinct in their interaction and contribution behavior, on the team level we identified the importance of distinct user roles on team performance. We contribute to the theory of crowdsourcing by illustrating that context and purpose of crowdsourcing initiatives may influence the behavioral pattern of users. This study contributes to theory about virtual teams by providing a better understanding about team structures in the context of crowdsourcing. Further we add insights to the junctures between crowdsourcing and social innovation in the context of open development.
Online communities frequently create significant economic and relational value for community participants and beyond. It is widely accepted that the underlying source of such value is the collective flow of knowledge among community participants. We distinguish the conditions for flows of tacit and explicit knowledge in online communities and advance an unconventional theoretical conjecture: Online communities give rise to tacit knowledge flows between participants. The crucial condition for these flows is not the advent of novel, digital technology as often portrayed in the literature, but instead the technology's domestication by humanity and the sociality it affords. This conjecture holds profound implications for theory and research in the study of management and organization, as well as their relation to information technology.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine whether individual-level knowledge sharing (in terms of attitudes, benefit estimations, self-efficacy and actualised behaviours) affects individual work performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Hypotheses are tested through structural equation modelling of survey data collected from 595 members of a public organisation.
Findings
The findings confirm the hypothesis that knowledge-sharing propensity impacts positively on knowledge-sharing behaviour. Additionally, knowledge-sharing behaviour mediates the relationship between knowledge-sharing propensity and individual performance. The latter effect is also significant amongst the most highly educated members of the organisation but not among those with the lowest educational levels.
Originality/value
This paper provides insights into the knowledge-sharing–attitude–behaviour–work performance linkage. It thus addresses a relatively neglected area in knowledge management (KM) research, namely, that of individual knowledge behaviours and their performance impact, with an aim to better understand the micro-foundations of KM. It also contributes to knowledge on KM in the public sector.
Purpose
Ambidexterity has become essential for organisations to remain competitive. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the causal relationships among information technology resources, absorptive capacity and individual ambidexterity. Further, this study examines the moderating role of social interaction in the absorptive capacity–individual ambidexterity relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative approach was used in this study through analysis of survey data from 475 employees in the Iraqi telecommunications sector. Structural equation modelling with AMOS was used to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
This study noted a positive relationship among information technology resources, absorptive capacity and individual ambidexterity. The results of this study also showed that individuals with a higher degree of social interaction were more likely to strengthen the association between absorptive capacity and individual ambidexterity.
Practical implications
The results indicate that managers should pay attention to the important relationship between IT resources, absorptive capacity and individual ambidexterity in the Iraqi telecommunications firms. It is also suggested to design strategies to promote social interaction among their employees and facilitate cooperation and information transfer.
Originality/value
This study shows that information technology has influence on absorptive capacity and individual ambidexterity and argues the importance of social interaction as a boundary condition on absorptive capacity and individual ambidexterity relationship for telecommunications firms in Iraq a context that neglected in previous studies.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the mechanisms of absorptive capacity (ACAP) in the specific context of digital product development teams. More precisely, it explores the process of internalizing and utilizing external knowledge from sources outside the team to promote the development of innovative ambidexterity.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs the ACAP framework and directs specific attention to the concept of knowledge assimilation, encompassing comprehension, documentation and dissemination. Seventy-five employees of one of Indonesia’s largest commercial banks were surveyed about two initiatives they participated in. To this end, 12 research hypotheses are formulated, tested and analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings
Knowledge comprehension, documentation and dissemination are found to mediate between knowledge acquisition and knowledge exploitation. At the same time, the relationship between knowledge acquisition and knowledge transformation is mediated by knowledge comprehension and dissemination, but not documentation. The authors also found that knowledge transformation positively mediates between knowledge comprehension and dissemination on the one hand and ambidexterity on the other hand. Importantly, knowledge exploitation negatively mediates between knowledge comprehension and documentation on the one hand and ambidexterity on the other hand.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by offering nuanced insights into the interplay of knowledge assimilation processes within ACAP, particularly in the context of digital product development. The identification of mediating factors and their impacts on ambidexterity provides valuable implications for both theory and practice in this domain.
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of crowdsourcing-based social connections on the development of innovation competence (IC). The conflicting results in existing studies regarding the influence of crowdsourcing-based social linkage on IC necessitate a thorough investigation into this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The research uses a sample of 300 senior managers from various industries in India. The data is analyzed using partial least squares (PLS), a component-based approach to structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results of the analysis indicate that knowledge transfer effectiveness and absorptive capacity (ABC) play a significant role as mediators in the relationship between social linkages based on crowdsourcing and IC. This suggests that the effectiveness of knowledge transfer and the organization’s ability to absorb and apply new knowledge are crucial factors in leveraging crowdsourcing-based social connections for enhanced innovation capabilities.
Practical implications
The findings of this study hold crucial implications for managerial practices. The research highlights that successful crowdsourcing outcomes necessitate more than mere establishment of external social linkages. Managers must recognize that internal organizational readiness plays an equally critical role. This study offers two key managerial insights: first, exclusive focus on external linkages is inadequate; internal capabilities such as ABC and optimized knowledge transfer processes must be actively nurtured. Second, the concept of “crowdsourcing maturity” is introduced, emphasizing the evolving dynamic capabilities over time. Managers are urged to adopt a balanced approach, aligning external partnerships with internal adaptability, to fully optimize IC.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the existing body of knowledge by shedding light on the mediating variables that influence the conversion of crowdsourcing-based social linkage into improved IC. By considering the role of knowledge transfer effectiveness and ABC, the study provides insights into the mechanisms through which social linkages based on crowdsourcing can impact innovation capabilities. These findings offer valuable implications for organizations seeking to leverage crowdsourcing for innovation purposes and enhance their overall IC.
In the crowdsourcing challenges crowd members can interact with each other by, for example, chatting, exchanging feedback, providing advice, discussing, and commenting on ideas. These social interactions shape a network structure, which is a set of social relationships developed by crowd members. This study aims at investigating how occupying diverse network positions within a crowdsourcing challenge network increases the members’ likelihood to succeed in a competition. Leveraging prior literature on social networks and crowdsourcing research, we theorize how central and structural hole network positions influence the crowd members’ likelihood of winning crowdsourcing challenges by leveraging the knowledge and information flows that they can access through such network positions. To empirically test the developed hypotheses, we built a crowdsourcing challenge network shaped by 2479 members registered in the 99designs crowdsourcing platform. We found that both occupying a central position and assuming a structural hole network position within the crowdsourcing challenge network showed an inverted U‐shaped effect on the success of crowd members. The results of this study contribute to previous crowdsourcing literature and provide critical implications for crowd members and managers organizing crowdsourcing competitions.
This research explores three role perspectives of open innovation (OI) capabilities – transfer, absorption, and brokerage – and their effect on OI performance at the organisational level. The authors argue that OI capabilities contain three different perspectives on the roles played in the ecosystem and can be continuously reshaped and enhanced through the organisational dynamic capabilities (DCs) of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring. Also, the mediation effects of organisational infrastructure and the socio-psychological atmosphere between the OI capabilities of the three role perspectives and OI performance are analysed. Data were collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire from 262 actors in corporations. The collected data were analysed using the partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modelling (SEM) technique with SmartPLS 3.0 software. In this regard, the findings reveal that an organisation’s transfer capability directly affects OI performance, whereas absorption and brokerage capabilities indirectly affect OI performance through infrastructure and the socio-psychological atmosphere. Thus, organisational OI transfer, absorption, and brokerage capabilities directly or indirectly affect OI performance. This research aims to provide a theoretical framework to understand the multi-dimensional nature of organisational OI capabilities (which should be dynamically reshaped) and their relationships with OI performance.
This study aims to explore the relationship between social capital and the innovation performance of digital firms. In addition, we examine the mediation effect of cross-border knowledge search on this relationship and investigate the serial mediation effect of cross-border knowledge search and absorptive capacity between social capital and innovation performance. Using data collected from 217 Chinese digital companies, we tested the proposed hypotheses by constructing structural equation models through SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 24.0. Based on the results of theoretical deductions and empirical tests, some conclusions can be drawn. First, for digital firms, social capital remains significantly and positively associated with innovation performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, digital firms with higher social capital are likely to generate higher innovation performance even if they experience a more severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, cross-border knowledge search effectively mediates the relationship between social structural capital, social relational capital, and innovation performance, whereas this mediation effect is not significant between social cognitive capital and innovation performance. Finally, the serial mediation effect of cross-border knowledge search and absorptive capacity on the relationship between social capital and innovation performance is confirmed. Some managerial implications are summarized based on our findings. On the one hand, digital firms should still actively build social capital to enhance innovation performance during the pandemic. On the other hand, social capital can help digital firms implement cross-border knowledge search and develop absorptive capacity. Thus, digital firms can effectively utilize heterogeneous knowledge to enhance their innovation performance.
Social networks provide individuals with diverse or redundant information depending on the network structure. Both types of information offer advantages for generating new ideas. At the same time, network structure and network content are independent. As a result, two individuals with the same network position can access diverse or redundant content from their social peers. In this study, we investigate the function of social networks in innovative endeavors given individuals’ different kinds of information accessing behavior. In accordance with previous research, we argue that individuals with a broker status access more diverse information through non-redundant network structures and develop, on average, more novel ideas. We further propose that redundancy in content complements brokers’ structural non-redundancy by providing familiar knowledge elements and therefore interpretability, while non-redundancy in both content and structure leads to information overload. Thus, we hypothesize that brokers accessing more information depth, and independently, less information breadth generate newer ideas. To test our hypotheses, we collected data from a popular online maker community containing 18,146 ideas, 19,919 profiles, and 52,663 comments. We used topic modeling (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) to extract hidden knowledge elements and social network analysis to identify brokers. In line with our hypotheses, we find that information depth (breadth) strengthens (weakens) a favorable broker position. These findings have implications for the literature on idea generation in social networks and household sector innovation.
To address the trade-off between new product innovativeness and speed to market caused by customer participation activities, the author differentiates two dimensions of customer participation—customer participation as an information resource (CPI) and customer participation as a codeveloper (CPC)—and explores the moderating effects of downstream customer network connectivity and new product development process interdependence and complexity. Matched data collected from 143 customer–component manufacturer dyads indicate that CPI has a negative influence on innovativeness when downstream customer network connectivity is high but a positive effect when it is low. In contrast, CPI has a positive effect on speed to market when downstream customer network connectivity is high and no significant effect when it is low. In addition, CPC undermines new product speed to market when process interdependence is high. In contrast, CPC can improve new product speed to market but hurt new product innovativeness when process interdependence is low. The results of this article provide specific managerial guidelines as to how to manage customer participation to improve new product innovativeness and speed to market.
Customers have become co-creators of value in software development and improvement. The intensifying integration of social networks and online communities requires an understanding of social influence on user participation. Drawing upon social capital theory, we studied the influence of peers and network position on user participation in a firm-hosted software community. Based on an analysis of longitudinal data on the knowledge seeking and knowledge contribution behaviours of 2,192 users, we found that an individual’s quantity of friends’ participation is positively related to his or her participation. The source credibility from expert friends’ participation negatively affects user participation. We especially found that network centrality which depicts an individual’s relative position in the network significantly moderates the effects of peers. Interestingly, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality exert different moderating effects on the peer effects. Closeness centrality strengthens the influence of friends’ participation on knowledge seeking but has no effect on knowledge contribution. Betweenness centrality does not affect the effects of friends’ participation. The effects of source credibility from expert friends are weaker for users with lower closeness centrality and higher betweenness centrality. This study yields a better understanding of social influence on user participation and provides insights for software community managers.
Previous studies have been conducted on how organizational slack impact on the firms' innovation performance. However, there are few researches on how slack availability impact on the firms' innovation performance. In addition, absorptive capacity is also an important factor affecting innovation performance, but there is no literature focusing on the important role of absorptive capacity on organizational slack and firms' innovation performance. Therefore, it is necessary to combine organizational slack, absorptive capacity and innovation performance to analyze. In addition, high-tech manufacturing firms are the pillars of the country's economic development, and its development affects the country's international competitiveness. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the promotion mechanism of innovation performance for promoting national competitive advantage. Based on this, we classify organizational slack from the perspective of slack availability, and analyze the effects of different dimensions of organizational slack and absorptive capacity on innovation performance in high-tech manufacturing firms. Additionally, we compare and analyze the multiple mediation effects of two absorption capacities on organizational slack and innovation performance. Using the data from Chinese high-tech manufacturing firms from 2016 to 2018, we construct a panel data model to conduct empirical analysis and obtain the following research findings: with the increase of available slack and potential slack, the innovation performance of high-tech manufacturing firms exhibits an initial increasing trend and then a decreasing trend. In contrast, with the increase of recoverable slack, the innovation performance of high-tech manufacturing firms exhibits an initial decreasing trend and then an increasing trend. In addition, we use the bias-corrected bootstrap method to test the multiple mediation effects of the two absorptive capacities, and find that available slack can influence the innovation performance of high-tech manufacturing firms through realized absorptive capacity. In addition, potential slack can influence the innovation performance of high-tech manufacturing firms through potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity.
Recognizing that business model innovation (BMI) is a constant source of value creation in the digital economy, we examine the nexus between absorptive capacity and strategic flexibility, and their effects on BMI. We argue that to increase strategic flexibility and innovate their business model, firms need to develop their potential absorptive capacity (acquisition and assimilation of knowledge) as well as their realized absorptive capacity (transformation and exploitation of knowledge). While potential absorptive capacity drives both BMI and strategic flexibility, realized absorptive capacity increases a firm’s strategic flexibility. Our analysis of 282 Italian small- and medium-sized firms also shows a relationship between realized absorptive capacity and BMI, but only under conditions of environmental uncertainty.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review existing literature on organizational learning (OL) through networking activities in tourism and hospitality (T&H) research. Referring to theories and concepts from the mainstream literature in OL and inter-organizational network research, the study provides an overview of the existing level of knowledge in T&H research, elaborates theoretical and practical implications and suggests future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review approach was used to identify and analyze relevant literature. The literature search involved six scientific online databases, namely, EBSCOhost, Emerald, ProQuest, Sage, ScienceDirect and Web of Knowledge, which were systematically scanned with defined keywords. Relevant articles were evaluated, selected, analyzed and synthesized to find out what is already known and what is yet to be known.
Findings
A total of 69 articles were identified that present insights into OL through networking activities in T&H research. The review reveals that the resource, and especially the knowledge-based view of the firm, social capital theory, the relational view and trust and agglomeration theory represent insightful theoretical approaches to study OL phenomena and OL outcomes such as innovation, value creation and competitive advantage.
Originality/value
According to the author’s information, this paper represents the first attempt to provide a comprehensive review of T&H- specific OL literature from a network perspective. The findings call for increased attention to this research field, especially regarding the adaptation of OL concepts to a T&H-specific context as a networked industry.
This study investigates how the information that individuals accumulate through helping others in a customer support crowdsourcing community influences their ability to generate novel, popular, and feasible ideas in an innovation crowdsourcing community. A customer support crowdsourcing community is one in which customers help each other develop solutions to their current problems with a company's products. An innovation crowdsourcing community is one in which customers propose new product ideas directly to a company. Because a customer support community provides information regarding customers' current needs and provides opportunities to help individuals activate relevant means information, we expect that an individuals' experience of helping in a customer support community enhances the individuals' new product ideation performance. By utilizing a natural language processing technique, we construct each individual's information network based on his or her helping activities in a customer support community. Building on analogical reasoning theory, we hypothesize that the patterns of individuals' information networks, in terms of breadth and depth, influence their various new product ideation outcomes in an innovation crowdsourcing community. Our analysis reveals that generalists who have offered help on broad topic domains in the customer support community aremore likely to create novel ideas than are nongeneralists. Further, we find that generalists who have accumulated deep knowledge in at least one topic domain (deep generalists) outperform nongeneralists in their ability to generate popular and feasible ideas, whereas generalists who have accumulated only shallowknowledge across diverse domain areas (shallowgeneralists) do not. The results suggest that the ability of generalists to outperformnongeneralists in creating popular and feasible ideas is contingent on whether they have also accumulated deep knowledge.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way companies involved in Open Innovation Processes (OIPs) routinize the procedure through which they can absorb in-bound knowledge, i.e. knowledge that comes from the outside and, in particular, from the crowd. In-bound knowledge passes through the phases of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation. Thus, companies need to define mechanisms and paths – related to their potential and realized absorptive capacity –to manage and exploit it.
Design/methodology/approach
The present paper is based on a longitudinal case study, an OIP launched by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) that has already been implemented for three times. Multiple direct interviews with FCA top managers have allowed rebuilding the routinized procedure through which the company absorbs in-bound knowledge.
Findings
To routinize the procedure of absorbing in-bound knowledge, the company has settled specific mechanisms and paths and has established some bottlenecks over the process of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation of in-bound knowledge. These mechanisms and path, as well as these bottlenecks, are identified and descripted in the paper.
Research limitations/implications
Beyond the limitations linked to the use of a single case study, another limitation might be the reference to a big company in a specific industry. Anyway, with due caution, achieved findings can be referred to other industries as well.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to exploring if and how companies managing OIPs routinize the procedure through which they can absorb in-bound knowledge.
We study how contributors to innovation contests improve their performance through direct experience and by observing others as they synthesize learnable signals from different sources. Our research draws on a 10-year panel of more than 55,000 individuals participating in a firm-hosted online innovation community sponsoring creative t-shirt design contests. Our data set contains almost 180,000 submissions that reflect signals of direct performance evaluation from both the community and the firm. Our data set also contains almost 150 million ratings that reflect signals for learning from observing the completed work of others. We have three key findings. First, we find a period of initial investment with decreased performance. This is because individuals struggle to synthesize learnable signals from early performance evaluation. This finding is contrary to other studies that report faster learning from early direct experience when improvements are easiest to achieve. Second, we find that individuals consistently improve their performance from observing others’ good examples. However, whether they improve from observing others’ bad examples depends on their ability to correctly recognize that work as being of low quality. Third, we find that individuals can successfully integrate signals about what is valued by the firm hosting the community, not just about what is valued by the community. We thus provide important insights into the mechanisms of how individuals learn in crowdsourced innovation and provide important qualifications for the often-heralded theme of “learning from failures.”
The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2018.1219 .
Organizations can no longer be isolated entities in the current dynamic competitive environment but tend to establish alliances and networks with external parties. Recently, research has suggested that organizations develop collaborative modes with Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) to acquire and combine Heterogeneous Sources of Knowledge (HSK) within their organizational environment. Innovation thus becomes increasingly generated by a cross-process involving a diverse set of industries. Nevertheless, few studies have assessed how knowledge from distant industries, such as CCIs, can affect firms’ innovation performance. Accordingly, this empirical research on a sample of 187 firms evaluates whether formal and informal collaboration modes with CCIs affect innovation performance. Moreover, it assesses the moderating role of both HSK and absorptive capacity. In particular, it aims to answer the following questions. What are the effects of collaboration modes with CCIs on firms’ innovation performance? What are the differences (in terms of effects) between Formal Collaboration Modes (FCMs) and Informal Collaboration Modes (ICMs) with CCIs on firms’ innovation performance? Do heterogeneity of knowledge sources and absorptive capacity increase the possibility of benefiting from FCMs and ICMs with CCIs in terms of innovation performance? The results contribute to the theory indicating that HSK are important to benefit from knowledge from CCIs, while absorptive capacity does not fulfil the same role.
The value-capture problem for innovators in the digital economy involves some different challenges from those in the industrial economy. It inevitably requires understanding the dynamics of platforms and ecosystems. These challenges are amplified for enabling technologies, which are the central focus of this article. The innovator of an enabling technology has a special business model challenge because the applicability to many downstream verticals forecloses, as a practical matter, ownership of all the relevant complements. Complementary assets (vertical and lateral) in the digital context are no longer just potential value-capture mechanisms (through asset price appreciation or through preventing exposure to monopolistic bottleneck pricing by others); they may well be needed simply for the technology to function. Technological and innovational complementors present both coordination and market design challenges to the innovator that generally lead to market failure in the form of an excess of social over private returns. The low private return leads to socially sub-optimal underinvestment in future R&D that can be addressed to some extent by better strategic decision-making by the innovator and/or by far-sighted policies from government and the judiciary.
The default value-capture mechanism for many enabling technologies is the licensing of trade secrets and/or patents. Licensing is shown to be a difficult business model to implement from a value-capture perspective. When injunctions for intellectual property infringement are hard to win, or even to be considered, the incentives for free riding by potential licensees are considerable. Licensing is further complicated if it involves standard essential patents, as both courts and policy makers may fail to understand that development of a standard involves components of both interoperability and technology development. If a technology standard is not treated as the embodiment of significant R&D efforts enabling substantial new downstream economic activity, then rewards are likely to be calibrated too low to support appropriate levels of future innovation.
【Full-text available on request】Online brand community is often regarded as a value co-creation platform where customers' active contributions are most important to the success of the community. Previous studies on the potential drivers of users' contributions placed a great emphasis on either users or the community itself, and most of these studies primarily focused on linear relationships. Drawing upon person-environment fit theory, this study develops a research model to explore the nonlinear effects of person-environment fit, i.e., needs-supplies fit and demands-abilities fit, on community commitment, as well as the nonlinear effect of community commitment on users' knowledge contribution intention. Using 480 online survey responses, the results indicate that needs-supplies fit has a decreasing incremental effect, while demands-abilities fit has an increasing incremental effect on community commitment. Community commitment has an increasing incremental effect on willingness to contribute. Implications for both research and practice are also discussed.
This research considers the dynamic positioning of an enterprise in an interfirm network and its propensity for new product development. Specifically, we explore how firms reconcile the dichotomy between central and structural holes network positions, by dynamically shifting from a central to a structural holes position (and vice versa) over time. By grounding this research in network dynamics theory, we argue how prior strong central (structural holes) network positions in the interfirm network increase the likelihood the firm will benefit from structural holes (central) positions in the following time period. We also propose that these positions can be modeled by an inverted U-shaped relationship, which determines the firm's ability to develop new products. Indeed, by balancing central and structural holes positions, firms derive product development advantages from both network positions while reducing the relative drawbacks. However, a risk of such dynamic behavior is that when applied too often, it may prevent firms from assimilating the advantages brought by the two network positions. We test our theoretical framework with a sample of firms from the biopharmaceutical industry over a period of 10 years (2001 until 2010) using two approaches. First, we test the presence of dynamic behaviors using a panel data sample consisting of a network of 3121 firms observed for 10 years (2001–2010). Second, we explore the effect of dynamic behavior on each firm's ability to develop new products using a cross-sectional data sample of 544 public firms belonging to the network of the 3121 firms. Our results suggest that a dynamic perspective employed in reconciling the dichotomy between central and structural holes network positions increases the ability of a firm to develop new products. However, findings also suggest that if firms shift too often from one network position to another, benefits of the dynamic network strategy are diminished.
Although the concept of absorptive capacity has gained wide acceptance in the literature, our understanding of the origins of a firm’s ability to absorb and leverage new knowledge is limited. Drawing on Coleman’s (1990) bathtub framework for macro-micro-macro-relations in social science, this study explores the multilevel antecedents of absorptive capacity using survey data gathered from 342 informants at different levels of analysis in 106 medical technology firms. Multilevel structural equation modeling analyses indicate that formal and informal integration mechanisms are positively related to absorptive capacity at the organizational level and that this relationship is mediated through a microlevel process. The findings reveal that knowledge workers’ cognitive process of perspective taking and their creative behavior are important microfoundations of absorptive capacity. Moreover, the results emphasize the critical role of key employees in explaining firm-level heterogeneity in building organizational capabilities.
What determines the success of open source projects? In this study, we investigate the impact of network social capital on open source project success. We define network social capital as the benefits open source developers secure from their membership in developer collaboration networks. We focus on one specific type of success as measured by the rate of knowledge creation in an open source project. Specific hypotheses are developed and tested using a longitudinal panel of2,3 78 projects hosted at SourceForge. We find that network social capital is not equally accessible to or appropriated by all projects. Our main results are as follows.First, projects with greater internal cohesion (that is, cohesion among the project members) are more successful. Second, external cohesion (that is, cohesion among the external contacts of a project) has an inverse U-shaped relationship with the project's success; moderate levels of external cohesion are best for a project's success rather than very low or very high levels. Third, the technological diversity of the external network of a project also has the greatest benefit when it is neither too low nor too high. Fourth, the number of direct and indirect external contacts positively affects a project's success such that the effect of the number of direct contacts is moderated by the number of indirect contacts. These results are robust to several control variables and alternate model specifications. Several theoretical and managerial implications are provided.
With firms' increasing use of social media platforms, such as online user innovation communities (OUICs), customers are actively participating in firm-sponsored innovation activity by posting and commenting on new ideas for improving the firms' products and services, or to develop new ones. While it has been suggested that OUICs promote user interactions, it is largely unclear how other users' feedback may stimulate a focal user's contribution to such OUICs. Drawing on a media usage theory, we identify multifaceted benefits from user feedback that are cognitive, integrative and affective in the archival comments received by a focal user, and examine their individual and joint impacts on the user's future contribution in terms of both ideating and commenting behavior. We conduct a longitudinal study by collecting a large-scale, quantitative data set from a leading OUIC between 2008 and 2015, which reveals novel findings on the nuanced role of user feedback on social media in stimulating innovation.
This paper investigates the impact of both geographical and relational proximity on the innovative performance of the firm. We address the role of one firm characteristic—its absorptive capacity—as a specific contingency affecting the relationship between different proximities and innovation. Using data from 158 high-tech firms located in the Tiburtina Valley in Italy, we studied the relationship between these firms and their key customers. Our findings support the need to downplay the role of geographical proximity in promoting innovation. Our results also show that relational proximity to key customers has a complementary relationship with absorptive capacity, which positively moderates its influence on innovative performance.
Online communities have become an important source for knowledge and new ideas. However, little is known about how to create a compelling virtual experience to inspire individuals to make novel contributions. This examination is crucial as participants' time and attention have become increasingly scarce resources in an ever more crowded online space. Drawing from the motivation through job design theory, we develop and test a research framework to examine how motivation can be influenced or triggered by competition design characteristics to drive creativity in crowdsourcing communities. Specifically, we investigate the importance of task and knowledge design dimensions in eliciting levels of motivation leading to creative efforts. Additionally, we consider the mediating influence of trust in driving knowledge contribution behaviour. Our hypothesising suggests that trust in the hosting platform reduces uncertainty and fosters knowledge exchange. Based on an empirical study of Kaggle's data scientists community, it reveals that intrinsic motivation exerts a strong effect on participation intention, which in turn positively impacts participant's creative efforts. Highly autonomous competitions with special emphasis on problem solving that require solvers to perform a variety of tasks will further challenge contestants to apply their abilities and skills leading to greater enjoyment and sense of competence. Our findings provide important implications for Web platform managers for the successful management of crowdsourcing communities.
Open source software projects share key resources including knowledge and developer attention. Developers who participate on multiple projects create ties among projects and facilitate access to those projects’ resources. However, projects also compete for developer attention, and they vary in their ability to integrate knowledge. This paper explores how factors that facilitate knowledge integration (low software coupling and high interactive discussion) impact project success and how developers’ attention to external projects may dampen a focal project’s success. Further, we explore how these factors may moderate the positive impact of a project’s network degree centrality to develop a more nuanced model of their influences on project success. Using data from 175 OSS projects we find that software coupling, interactive discussion and externally focused developer attention directly impact completed code commits. Interactive discussion also amplifies the benefit of high network degree centrality, while developers’ external attention weakens the positive impact of high network degree centrality. Results add to theory by providing a more nuanced view of how key strategic resources (knowledge and attention) drive OSS success. In particular it describes how knowledge integration ability, developer attention, and network degree centrality interact to influence project outcomes.
The 15-year history of collaboration on Wikipedia offers insight into how peer production communities create knowledge. In this research, we combine disparate content and collaboration approaches through a social network analysis approach known as an affiliation network. It captures both how knowledge is transferred in a peer production network and also the underlying skills possessed by its contributors in a single methodological approach. We test this approach on the Wikipedia articles dedicated to medical information developed in a subcommunity known as a WikiProject. Overall, we find that the position of an article in the affiliation network is associated with the quality of the article. We further investigate information quality through additional qualitative and quantitative approaches including expert coders using medical students, crowdsourcing using Amazon Mechanical Turk, and visualization using network graphs. A review by fourth-year medical students indicates that the Wikipedia quality rating is a reliable measure of information quality. Amazon Mechanical Turk ratings, however, are a less reliable measure of information quality, reflecting observable content characteristics such as article length and the number of references.
Building on a unique, multi-source, and multi-method study of R&D projects in a leading professional service firm, we develop the argument that organizations are more likely to fund projects with intermediate levels of novelty. That is, some project novelty increases the share of requested funds received, but too much novelty is difficult to appreciate and is selected against. While prior research has considered the characteristics of the individuals generating project ideas, we shift the focus to panel selectors and explore how they shape the evaluation of novelty. We theorize that a high panel workload reduces panel preference for novelty in selection, whereas a diversity of panel expertise and a shared location between panel and applicant increase preference for novelty. We explore the implications of these findings for theories of innovation search, organizational selection, and managerial practice.