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The influence of network positions on user innovation communities

2016; Academy of Management; Volume: 2016; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5465/ambpp.2016.15803abstract

2376-7197

Wonho Lee, Youngbae Kim,

Knowledge Management and Sharing

User innovators join communities of interest in search of support for their unmet needs, however only a handful of scholars explored how different network relationships alter an individual’s innovative performance. This study explores network positional (degree centrality and betweenness centrality) influence on innovative performance, and furthermore investigates the influences of social network on originality of the innovation. Unique data set was created to explore these relationships. 594,236 interaction data between 3,489 community members of XDA developer’s community was collected. According to the findings, both network positions hold a boundary condition in optimum number of relationships that are beneficial for innovative performance. Where beyond a certain boundary, innovative performance saturates. The main result of this study is that innovative outcomes vary in originality (e.g. sources used in the development process). In relation to the innovator’s social network position, individuals that occupy a higher between centrality position are more likely to innovate by using peer developed innovations as a source, whereas individuals that possess higher degree centrality are likely to innovate with and without peer developed innovation sources. Major implication of this study is that network positional influences innovative performance with an inverted u-shape relationship where beyond certain boundaries the innovative performance saturates. Furthermore, individuals with high betweenness centrality are more likely to innovate with multiple sources compared to individuals that possess high degree centrality.