Exploring users motivation in innovation communities

• A rapid growth of technologies supporting user interaction on the Internet, such as social networking sites and other virtual communities, can be seen today. These virtual communities have been shown to be of great value to companies that want to involve users in their innovation processes. However, in order to guide organisations on how to utilise their innovation intermediary communities, more knowledge is needed regarding who they are and their motivational drivers for participating in a community. The aim of this paper therefore is to explore who the users are and what motivates them to contribute to innovation processes in an innovation intermediary community. The main findings of our study indicate that users' motivation to participate is influenced by community type as well as technology adoption type. This study show that in innovation intermediary communities, one important motivational factor for users is learning.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik med samhällsvetenskaplig inriktning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Systems, Social aspects (hsv//eng)

Keyword

open innovation

user involvement

innovation communities

user characteristics

user driven innovation

motivation

Botnia Living Lab

technology adoption type

innovation intermediary community

Social Informatics

Informatik

Smarta maskiner och material (FOI)

Smart machines and materials (AERI)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)