The how and why of consumers' co-creation: evidence from the Fiat 500 case study

In the current business environment firms need to continuously renew their products to keep up with their competitive advantage. Increasingly, customers' needs are atomized and they change at an unprecedented pace. Thus, some companies have started to tap consumer knowledge over the internet. These companies are using the web and social media to build virtual spaces to connect with actual and potential customers in order to engage them at different stages of the new product development process. In such virtual spaces, consumers spontaneously decide to contribute with their knowledge, ideas and activities to company's cocreation initiatives. In marketing research, there is a dearth of studies on how companies are involving ordinary consumers in their innovation processes through internet applications. Moreover, few studies have investigated the implications of cocreation activities on innovation outputs and brand image. Thus, this study has adopted a single case study approach and has explored the how and why of cocreation in the Fiat 500 open innovation project (‘500 wants you'), and the results achieved in terms of innovation generated and impact on the corporate brand image

Structural social capital and innovation. Is knowledge transfer the missing link?

Purpose: This paper aims to address the gap that, to date, no systematic review has been carried out on the role that structural social capital (SC) plays for knowledge transfer and innovation at the interpersonal, inter-unit and inter-firm levels. Individuals and organisations are becoming increasingly involved in collaboration networks to share knowledge and generate innovation. SC theory has been adopted in several areas of study to explain how individuals, groups and organisations manage relationships to generate innovation. Design/methodology/approach: This review covers studies of SC in organisational behaviour, strategy and management over a period of 20 years. Findings: The literature review shows that knowledge types and knowledge transfer processes are the missing links in the relationship between structural SC and innovation. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that seemingly opposite configurations of SC are complementary to each other (structural holes vs dense networks; strong vs weak ties) and that contextual factors should be considered when discussing the effects of SC on knowledge transfer and innovation. In addition, it is the balance of different configurations of SC which enables an individual or a company to explore, access, assimilate and combine different knowledge types, which will lead to improved innovation outcomes. Originality/value: This review facilitates understanding of the role of SC for knowledge transfer processes and the mediating role of knowledge transfer processes and knowledge types in the relationship between structural SC and innovation

What makes information in online consumer reviews diagnostic over time? The role of review relevancy, factuality, currency, source credibility and ranking score

Online consumer reviews (OCRs) have become one of the most helpful and influential information in consumers purchase decisions. However, the proliferation of OCRs has made it difficult for consumers to orientate themselves with the wealth of reviews available. Therefore, it is paramount for online organizations to understand the determinants of perceived information diagnosticity in OCRs. In this study, we investigate consumer perceptions and we adopt the Elaboration Likelihood Model to analyze the influence of central (long, relevant, current, and factual OCRs) and peripheral cues (source credibility, overall ranking scores) on perceived information diagnosticity (PID). We consider the potential moderating effect of consumer involvement, and tested the robustness of the theoretical framework across time. Based on two surveys carried out in 2011 and in 2016, this study demonstrates the dynamic nature of the antecedents of PID in e-WOM. We found that long reviews are not perceived as helpful, while relevant and current reviews as well as overall ranking scores are perceived as diagnostic information in both samples. The significance of the predicting power of review factuality and source credibility has evolved over time. Both central (review quality dimensions) and peripheral cues (ranking score) were found to influence PID in high-involvement decisions

Why do travelers trust TripAdvisor? Antecedents of trust towards consumer-generated media and its influence on recommendation adoption and word of mouth

The proliferation of fake and paid online reviews means that building and maintaining consumer trust is a challenging task for websites hosting consumer-generated content. This study tests a model of antecedents and consequences of trust for consumer-generated media (CGM). Five factors are proposed for building consumer trust towards CGM: source credibility, information quality, website quality, customer satisfaction, user experience with CGM. Trust is expected to predict recommendation adoption and word of mouth. Data from 366 users of CGM were analyzed through structural equation modeling and the findings show that all the aforementioned factors with the exception of source credibility and user experience influence consumer trust towards CGM. Trust towards a CGM website influences travel consumers' intentions to follow other users' recommendations and fosters positive word of mouth. Findings also show that information quality predicts source credibility, customer satisfaction, and website quality

Expatriates managers' cultural intelligence as promoter of knowledge transfer in multinational companies

This study analyzes the role of the Cultural Intelligence (CQ) of expatriate managers in the processes of Conventional (CKT) and Reverse Knowledge Transfer (RKT) in Multinational Companies (MNCs). The Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was adopted to analyze the data from a survey of 103 senior expatriate managers working in Croatia. The study reveals how CQ, in all of its four dimensions (metacognitive, cognitive, behavioral, and motivational), acts as a knowledge de-codification and codification filter, assisting managers in the Knowledge Transfer process. The study also reveals how previous international experience does not moderate the positive effect of CQ on both CKT and RKT, offering important theoretical and practical insights to support MNCs in the KT process

Investigating the role of social capital in innovation: sparse versus dense network

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the literature on social capital and its contribution to innovation performance. Through an intensive review of the literature, the paper first analyzes the origin of the concept of social capital. It then explains the contribution of social capital within the organization and management studies. Further, social capital is considered the facilitator of knowledge search and knowledge sharing activities, which are considered of capital importance to innovation outcomes. Further, the paper clarifies the implications of social capital to two types of innovation: radical vs incremental innovation. Finally, the paper analyzes the structural dimension of social capital by focusing on the contribution of two different configurations and their effect on innovation: sparse vs cohesive networks. The paper contributes to the literature by uncovering the positive, but also the negative, drawbacks of social capital. Moreover, the paper focuses on the structural dimension of social capital and it discusses the controversial results of two different configurations of social capital (sparse vs cohesive networks) to the innovation performance. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review on both the positive and negative effects of social capital on innovation performance. The paper links social capital to the new innovation model, emphasizing the importance of social capital to knowledge search and sharing activities, and then to the innovation process. The authors suggest investigating the contribution of social capital according to firms' innovation scopes

Intra-firm knowledge sharing barriers: state of the art

Knowledge management has been identified as a practice for rapidly and effectively adapting in ever-changing environment. Within KM, knowledge sharing is considered a critical process for innovation generation and organizational efficiency. Indeed, the knowledge transfer process is often obstructed by the presence of barriers. Several factors has been identified by researchers; however literature lacks of a comprehensive review and categorization of these barriers. The paper analyzes the results of the researches on intra-firm/institution knowledge transfer in different disciplinary areas. The barriers/facilitators are categorized under five main dimensions: nature of knowledge, psychological, social, organizational and technological factors. The context-specific and complex nature of knowledge sharing fosters the proposition of a new theoretical model for knowledge sharing studies