Analysis of open innovation communities from the perspective of social network analysis

Abstract

Open innovation is an emergent paradigm by which organisations make use of their internal and external resources to perform their innovation processes. The growth of information and communication technologies has facilitated the spread of online open innovation communities, where users can share ideas as well as comment on and evaluate ideas posted by other community members. In this work, the behaviour of community members is analysed from the perspective of social network analysis. The final aim is twofold: first, to measure to what extent the different forms of participation are correlated to each other; and, second, how the collective intelligence evaluation schemes can be useful to identify those users posting ideas which are potentially applicable for the organisation. Obtained results can help community managers and organisations to improve the efficiency of the evaluation process when hundreds or thousands of ideas are shared through the online community.

Applying social network analysis to validate mass collaboration innovation drivers: An empirical study of NASA's International Space Apps Challenge

“…In addition to networks being an effective visualization tool, another reason for the increased attention in network-related research is recognition of the importance of network structures to the phenomena being studied. Several examples of empirical studies of real-world networks exist in current literature today (Casper and Murray, 2005;Latapy et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2012;Smith-Doerr et al, 2004;Newman et al, 2002) with a number demonstrating how network structure can provide knowledge and insight into the dynamics of the systems/communities studied (Cross et al, 2006;Litaker and Howard, 2013;Schaefer and Simpkins, 2014;Frith, 2014;Crespo et al, 2014;Santonen and Ritala, 2014;Martinez-Torres, 2014;Arenas-Má rquez et al, 2014).…”

Impact of Open Innovation Communities on Enterprise Innovation Performance: A System Dynamics Perspective

“…Users are no longer only passive recipients of products; they are more willing to actively express their own needs, participate in enterprises' innovation process, and share their ideas with others [4]. In this context, companies can use OICs to evaluate ideas posted by users, and through collective intelligence, choose the best of those ideas [5]. The essence of an OIC lies in utilizing all possibilities offered by internal and external users to create value for enterprises.…”

“…From the perspective of users, OICs bring together users with similar interests or goals. Specifically, an OIC is composed of a large number of individuals who participate voluntarily and interact with each other to achieve a common goal [5]. From the perspective of the network platform, an OIC lets enterprises organize users who wish to interact on a common topic.…”

“…Interaction activity of viewing = Monthly number of views/Monthly number of users = 14,170 (5) Interaction activity of commenting = Monthly number of comments/Monthly number of users = 7.98 (6) User Innovation behavior activity = Monthly number of posts/Monthly number of users = 1.28 (7) According to Xiaomi's 2018 Prospectus, the number of R&D personnel was 5515. From Table 2, on average, Xiaomi invested about 7% of its annual revenue in R&D investment and management expense: 3% in R&D investment and 4% in management expense.…”

“…The creation of collaborative systems and the internal and external knowledge resources increase the companies' ability to innovate.With regard to user management, the literature focuses on the impact of user behavior on the open innovation process of enterprises. For example, Martínez-Torres analyzed the behavior of community members from the perspective of social network analysis, concluding that collective intelligence can help companies identify real innovators, those who have the potential to publish high-value and feasible ideas [5]. Moreover, Martínez-Torres et al categorized creative ideas that users liked by themes, and compared those ideas to determine whether the ideas implemented by the enterprise met the user preferences [10].…”