Open Innovation In Online Brand Communities

The explosive growth of social media and online communities offers companies new unique opportunities to utilize information and knowledge capital by involving users in the company’s innovation activities. Companies started to realize the huge potential of online brand communities as a source of R&D innovations, and the ability to utilize and manage customer knowledge effectively can create competitive advantage for companies. The objective of this research is to identify factors which explain community members’ participation in open innovation activities in online brand communities. It is important from the research and business viewpoint to identify the factors which motivate users to participate in open innovation and enable new value creation for the company’s services and products. Structural equation modeling results indicate that both task involvement and utility explain significantly information and knowledge sharing and willingness to participate in open innovation activities. In addition, information and knowledge sharing has a strong significant impact on participation in open innovation. Implications for research and practice are suggested.