Organising User Communities for Innovation Management (eBook)

Dr. Celine Schulz obtained her doctorate at the Institute for Innovation Research, Technology Management and Entrepreneurship (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich) under the supervision of Prof. Dietmar Harhoff, Ph.D.

Preface 6
Acknowledgements 7
Table of Contents 9
List of Figures 12
List of Tables 13
Chapter 1 Introduction 15
1.1 Motivation 15
1.2 User Communities in the Information Technology Industry 18
1.2.1 Organisation of User Groups 19
1.2.1.1 Goals 19
1.2.1.2 Structure 20
1.2.1.3 Members 20
1.2.2 Computer Associates’ User Groups 21
1.2.2.1 The CA User Group Program 22
1.2.2.2 Inter-National User Group for Endevor 23
1.3 Description of the Dissertation Chapters 24
Chapter 2 Determinants of Sharing Information in User Communities 31
2.1 Introduction 31
2.2 The Embeddedness of Economic Action 32
2.3 Determinants of Information Sharing 37
2.3.1 Social Factors 37
2.3.1.1 Structural Embeddedness 37
2.3.1.2 Relational Embeddedness 38
2.3.1.3 Cognitive Embeddedness 38
2.3.2 Economic Factors 39
2.4 Data Source and Variable Description 40
2.4.1 Data Source 40
2.4.2 Variable Description 42
2.5 Empirical Analysis 45
2.5.1 Descriptive Statistics 45
2.5.2 Multivariate Analysis 49
2.5.2.1 Model Specification 49
2.5.2.2 Empirical Results 52
2.6 Discussion of Findings 57
Chapter 3 Maximising Benefits from Participating in User Communities 59
3.1 Introduction 59
3.2 Literature Review 61
3.3 Determinants of Successful User Communities 64
3.3.1 Individual-Specific Determinants 64
3.3.2 Group-Specific Determinants 66
3.4 Research Methods and Data Description 67
3.4.1 Methods 67
3.4.2 Variable Description 68
3.5 Empirical Analysis 72
3.5.1 Descriptive Statistics 72
3.5.2 Multivariate Analysis 78
3.5.2.1 Model Specification 78
3.5.2.2 Empirical Results 80
3.6 Conclusion 85
Chapter 4 Selecting User Community Collaborators for Innovation Management 89
4.1 Introduction 89
4.2 Customer Integration in the Innovation Process 91
4.2.1 Idea Generation 91
4.2.2 Problem Solving 92
4.2.3 Implementation and Diffusion 93
4.3 Characteristics of User Community Collabora-tors 94
4.3.1 Individual-Specific Characteristics 94
4.3.2 Group-Specific Characteristics 96
4.4 Study Setting and Method 96
4.5 Data Description 99
4.6 Empirical Analysis 102
4.6.1 Descriptive Statistics 102
4.6.2 Multivariate Analysis 108
4.6.2.1 Model Specifications 108
4.6.2.2 Estimation Results 111
4.7 Discussion of the Findings 119
Chapter 5 Conclusion 121
5.1 Summary 121
5.2 Limitations and Future Research 125
Appendix A 129
Appendix B 130
Bibliography 149