A deeper investigation of different types of core users and their contributions for sustainable innovation in a company-hosted online co-creation community

Abstract

Online co-creation allows companies to leverage external sources of knowledge to sustain product or service innovation. Users’ knowledge is regarded as such a potential source. Understanding user behaviors and innovation types is vital to improving a company’s sustainable innovation. Many prior studies mainly categorized online community members into core and peripheral members based on their posting frequencies. However, little research has gone beyond that categorization and examined whether there may be different types of core members who may contribute to product or service innovation differently, especially in the context of co-creation. The objectives of this study are three-fold: (1) to identify core members of a company-hosted online co-creation community automatically by considering several dimensions of individual members, including posting behavior, the generated content, and social network features; (2) to categorize and compare the contributions of different types of core members in the community, aiming to identify community members who may play leadership roles in sustainable innovation; and (3) to investigate the influence of those different types of core members on other community members. The data collected from a company-hosted online co-creation community in China were analyzed. Through analysis, we developed a novel innovation-oriented topology of core community members consisting of eight types. Based on Practice Theory, we also explored how those different types of core community members may influence other members’ behavior. Finally, based on the findings, we propose strategies and guidelines for practitioners to keep different types of community members actively engaged in online co-creation and to manage sustainable innovation practice better.