The existence of user-innovators in the household sector is undeniable. Prior research provided evidence on the vast scope of product developments by household sector users and documented a large set of individual user-innovator characteristics to explain their behavior. What has largely been neglected as a potential source of user innovation activities are product- and technology-specific factors. This study aims to fill this gap by identifying and analyzing user-innovators in Germany. On the basis of the results of a large-scale survey on German energy enthusiasts, we find dissatisfaction with existing products and time-consuming implementation as the main drivers of user innovation in our setting. The results show a negative correlation between data security concerns and the likelihood of becoming a user-innovator, pointing towards the maker culture among user-innovators. As an implication of our work, we provide a roadmap for all stakeholders aiming to harness the potential of user-innovators for future open innovation eco-systems.

This study contributes to the understanding of collaborative innovation in online user communities. Aside from providing evidence for the existence of these communities, prior research focused on users’ motivations, backgrounds, and roles at the micro level but largely neglected to examine the effects of individual user activities on joint activities at the community level. By applying a netnographic research design, which is followed by a content analysis step and logistic regression analysis, we explore to what degree different user activities trigger collaborative innovation inside a community. We find two factors inherent to the initial post of a thread, problem complexity and collaboration intention, which explain the probability of collaborative innovation. The likelihood of joint activities is raised significantly if the contribution of a user ranks high on both dimensions. By quantifying collaborative user innovation, we hope to encourage the inclusion of user activities in future policy considerations. Moreover, understanding the effects of individual user activities at the community level may help companies to understand users of technologies better and to identify opportunities for collaboration.

Energy and utilities companies find themselves in a paradoxical situation in which their traditional business models are losing profitability, and they must advocate energy efficiency and climate-protection goals, and thus encourage their customers to save energy. As a result, they must partially cannibalize their business models and experiment with new models and techniques. Energy Informatics (EI) offers promising business opportunities that alleviate the concerns of energy companies about traditional revenue streams. However, recent discussions on this issue lack proof of concept and success determinants. This business case study fills this gap by describing the journey of German energy company Energiequelle, which established a sustainable business model based on EI. On the basis of our interview data, we analyzed Energiequelle’s EI strategy and stakeholder management and present six lessons learned. We believe that our practice-oriented research provides profound insight, especially to high-level executives and policymakers.

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