Do retailers leverage consumer social media content for innovation? An exploratory study

The rise of social media has opened new pathways for organizations to innovate, in particular because innovation impetus may now be harvested from outside the organization. In our research-in-progress we examine the case of a global retail organization that has recently adopted social media strategies with the view to foster consumer-driven innovation. We focus on why social media content generated by consumers under some circumstances facilitates consumer-driven innovation and why under some conditions it doesn’t. We report on the research methods, data collection, data analysis strategies and emergent findings, and conclude with a brief overview of our future research

The More the Merrier? The Effects of Community Feedback on Idea Quality in Innovation Contests

Innovation contests represent a novel and popular approach for organizations to leverage the creativity of the crowd for organizational innovations. In this approach, ideators present their initial ideas to a global community of potential users, and solicit their feedback for idea improvement or refinement. However, it is not clear which types of feedback lead to the development of better ideas and which contingent factors moderate these relationships. In this study, we examine the role of community feedback on idea development in online innovation contests, by using feedback intervention theory to develop a set of hypotheses relating community feedback and idea quality, and then testing those hypotheses using data from ZEISS VR ONE innovation contest. Our analysis suggest that task information feedback does lead to improvement in idea quality, while task learning and task motivation feedback does not, and the number of users providing feedback moderate the relationship between feedback and idea quality. Implications of our findings for theory and practice are discussed

User Roles in Virtual Community of Crowdsourcing for Innovation: A Case Study of Xiaomi MIUI in China

Crowdsourcing innovation, as a new innovation pattern, helps companies reduce the risks and costs of innovation, which has received widespread attention and practical application. What is critical for improving crowdsourcing innovation performance is to understand the heterogeneity of participating users deeply, guide and motivate users to participate actively. Based on the typical characteristics of crowdsourcing innovation communities, this paper proposes a model integrating social network analysis (SNA) & K-means clustering algorithm to identify participants’ roles and conducting empirical research with Xiaomi MIUI community. The result indicates that users can be divided into nine categories: active user, positive user, negative user, bystander, creative contributor, faithful supporter, tourist, and new participant. In order to provide decision support for enterprises to govern crowdsourcing innovation virtual community effectively and improve innovation performance, this paper analyses the behavioural characteristics of each user role from two dimensions: interaction behaviour and contribution behaviour

Network Structure and User Roles of a Crowdsourcing Community – The Context of Social Innovations for a Development Project

The principles of crowdsourcing are increasingly applied in social contexts like development projects. In this study we explore a crowdsourcing community, which aims to enhance conditions in low income communities. We investigate the network structures of the community and detect behavioral pattern and user roles based on participation behavior for this specific context. Overall, the observed community shows a high level of collaboration and reciprocal dialogue. On the individual level we located four different user roles distinct in their interaction and contribution behavior. So called “collaborators” are considered as unique user role in an online community within a social context. We contribute to the theory of crowdsourcing by illustrating that context and purpose of crowdsourcing initiatives may influence the behavioral pattern of users. Further we add insights to the junctures between crowdsourcing and social innovation in the context of open development

Integrative Solutions in Online Crowdsourcing Innovation Challenges

Online crowdsourcing challenges are widely used for problem-solving and innovation. Existing theory has characterized such challenges as tools for tapping distant knowledge. By building on information processing theory we move beyond this characterization and present a perspective that describes innovation challenges as virtual places in which ideas are not simply submitted or commented upon but knowledge is integrated. This perspective shifts the role of crowdsourcing challenges from mere tools for gathering ideas to representing the locus of innovation. Our perspective suggests that three types of knowledge affect the quality of integrative solutions: elementary ideas, facts, and analogical examples. Based on a large dataset, we find that elementary ideas and analogical examples are related to increased solution quality, while facts are related to decreased solution quality. We expand the research on online crowdsourcing innovation challenges to include how crowd participants influence the quality of solutions through the content of their postings

Classifying Motivations in Social Product Development Networks: a Discriminant Analysis of Actor Profiles

This study develops a classification model to predict social actors’ co-innovation behavior in social product development (SPD) networks based on motivational differences. The study first identifies motivations for actors to continuously participate in co-innovation activities. Then, three discriminant functions are developed and cross-validated to classify actor groups, based on their level of willingness to participate in three types of behaviors: ideation, collaboration, and socialization. The results indicate that financial gains, entrepreneurship, and learning are significant predictors of ideation behaviors. Enjoyment and learning are strong indicators of collaboration, whereas networking, enjoyment, and altruism are most strongly related to socialization behaviors. These findings highlight three classes of SPD actors (Ideators, Collaborators, and Networkers) based on motivational differences. These classes provide a theoretically parsimonious model to predict the co-innovation behaviors in SPD and highlight the importance of platform design to appeal to different classes of potential contributors

Fighting the wicked problem of plastic pollution and its consequences for developing regions with expert and crowd solutions

The wicked problem of plastic pollution is one of the key global challenges. Finding adequate solutions to this complex problem requires cross-cultural and inter-organizational collaboration among diverse sets of stakeholders. In this context, the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation approaches the problem of plastic pollution not only by involving experts into innovation processes but also by integrating the general public in form of an IT enabled crowdsourcing initiative. In this study, we analyze the outcomes of these actions with the help of automated text mining techniques. Our analysis demonstrates significant differences between the solutions given by experts and the crowd along various criteria. Further, this study provides guidance for practitioners on how to integrate diverse sets of individuals in problem solving processes with the help of information systems technologies. Especially for sustainability issues affecting both, developed and developing regions

Open Innovation Platform Design: The Case of Social Product Development

Open Innovation as a new product development strategy has been used by businesses for decades. However, Social Product Development (SPD) has been recently introduced and popularized as an open innovation business model. The SPD model formalizes and monetizes the collaboration between an organization and creative communities through introducing new products and services. Either managed by intermediaries or directly by innovation sponsors, SPD platforms enable and support online innovative communities to ideate, collaborate, and network. Despite their abilities, many of these platforms do not provide fulfilling user experiences. To bridge this gap, the present study focuses on how SPD platform developers can offer more robust user interfaces (UI) and engaging user experiences (UX) alongside the six key SPD processes—social engagement, ideation, experiential communication, social validation, co-development, and co-commercialization. Building on experience and affordances theories, we offer a design framework that can more broadly inform the design and evaluation of open innovation platforms

Knowledge Production and Social Roles in an Online Community of Emerging Occupation: A Study of User Experience Practitioners on Reddit

New occupations are emerging that have high job demand in the market, but lack a coherent body of disciplinary knowledge. For example, user experience (UX) design is an emerging occupation that has not been adequately supported by the traditional educational system. For learners beginning their undergraduate education, there is no concrete path to follow to become a UX professional, due to few UX-focused undergraduate academic programs. Online communities of practices have been recognized as important learning venues, even while institutions of formal education often lag behind in structuring knowledge production and distribution. However, little is known about how knowledge is generated and diffused in online communities in the context of emerging occupations with volatile knowledge boundaries. In this paper, we analyze knowledge production in relation to social roles in an online UX community. We show that knowledge production is highly distributed, involving the participation of community members of varied levels of experience. We discuss how online communities support the development of the UX occupation