Reciprocity in innovation contest communities
Wolfgang Kathan, Johann Füller, Katja Hutter · 2013
Innovation contest communities are virtual tools for corporations to integrate external knowledge into the innovation process. Built on both, the principle of competition as well as the advantages of a collaborative community, these contests constitute special interaction phenomena. Former community research has identified reciprocity as a major motive for collaboration. By applying a social network analysis, the study explores the reciprocal and free-riding behavior of participants in an innovation contest community and potential influences on contest outcome variables like the quality and quantity of participants' ideas. The results show that reciprocity is a substantial element for the interaction behavior of innovation contest community participants which should be stimulated by contest organizers.