Katja Hutter

Communitition: The Tension between Competition and Collaboration in Community-Based Design Contests

Following the concepts of crowdsourcing, co-creation or open innovation, companies are increasingly using contests to foster the generation of creative solutions. Currently, online idea and design contests are enjoying a resurgence through the usage of new information and communication technologies. These virtual platforms allow users both to competitively disclose their creative ideas to corporations and also to interact and collaborate with like-minded peers, communicating, discussing and sharing their insights and experiences, building social networks and establishing a sense of community. Little research has considered that contest communities both promote and benefit from simultaneous co-operation and competition and that both types of relationships need to be emphasized at the same time. In this article, it is argued that the firm-level concept of co-opetition might also be relevant for an innovations success on the individual level within contest communities. Our concept of communitition should include the elements of competitive participation without disabling the climate for co-operation, as numerous user discussions and comments improve the quality of submitted ideas and allow the future potential of an idea to shine through the so-called wisdom of the crowd.

Virtual worlds as knowledge management platform – a practice‐perspective

Virtual worlds, as electronic environments where individuals can interact in a realistic manner in form of avatars, are increasingly used by gamers, consumers and employees. Therefore, they provide opportunities for reinventing business processes. Especially, effective knowledge management (KM) requires the use of appropriate information and communication technology (ICT) as well as social interaction. Emerging virtual worlds enable new ways to support knowledge and knowing processes because these virtual environments consider social aspects that are necessary for knowledge creating and knowledge sharing processes. Thus, collaboration in virtual worlds resembles real‐life activities. In this paper, we shed light on the use of Second Life (SL) as a KM platform in a real‐life setting. To explore the potential and current usage of virtual worlds for knowledge and knowing activities, we conducted a qualitative study at IBM. We interviewed IBM employees belonging to a special workgroup called ‘Web 2.0/virtual worlds’ in order to gain experience in generating and exchanging knowledge by virtually collaborating and interacting. Our results show that virtual worlds – if they are able to overcome problems like platform stability, user interface or security issues – bear the potential to serve as a KM platform. They facilitate global and simultaneous interaction, create a common context for collaboration, combine different tools for communication and enhance knowledge and knowing processes.

Machiavellianism or Morality: Which Behavior Pays Off In Online Innovation Contests?

Abstract Prior research on user behavior in online innovation contests has mainly focused on factors that positively impact prosocial, collaborative behavior, which should ultimately lead to innovative outcomes. However, little is known about the effects of more negative personal characteristics that might result in more competitive, antisocial, and even unethical behavior. This paper considers Machiavellianism as one of the traits that constitute the “dark triad of personality” and explores the relationship between Machiavellianism and participants’ contribution behavior in online innovation contests. Specifically we investigate how Machiavellian characteristics influence individuals’ contribution intensity, communication, and interaction behavior within the contest community as well as the quality and kind of their contributions. This study relies on multisource individual-level data from a large innovation contest in the field of public transportation. We find that the three dimensions of Machiavellianism—distrust of others, amorality, and desire for status—have very distinct behavioral consequences in the context of online innovation contests. Specifically, the oppositional consequences of amoral manipulation and striving for status on the one hand and showing distrust of others on the other hand concerning contribution quantity and contribution quality are found. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of negative personality traits such as Machiavellianism as powerful predictors of behavior and of success within competitive innovation environments and leads to important managerial implications regarding the design and management of innovation contests.

Identifying Participants' Roles in Open Government Platforms and Its Impact on Community Growth

This paper is concerned with the theoretical deduction and network based analysis of user roles in a public sector online participation project. In this exploratory study we investigate the heterogeneity of community participants, by deducing typical roles, the development over time and possible influences on the overall community building process. The more comprehensive understanding of the underlying network structure will contribute to a better understanding of Open Government activities in general. We find different user roles to differ in kind and quality of their contributions in creating, shaping, and disseminating Open Government activities. The communication and contribution behavior of individuals as well as the identification of different user roles was analyzed by using social network analysis (SNA).

Social Brand Value and the Value Enhancing Role of Social Media Relationships for Brands

Due to the social media revolution and the emergence of communities, social networks, and user generated content portals, prevalent branding concepts need to catch up with this reality. Given the importance of social ties, social interactions and social identity in the new media environment, there is a need to account for a relationship measure in marketing and branding. Based on the concept of social capital we introduce the concept of social brand value, defined as the perceived value derived by exchange and interactions with other users of the brand within a `community. Within a qualitative study marketing experts were interviewed and highlighted the importance towards social media activities, but also indicated that they do not have a clear picture on how strategies should look like and how their success can be measured. A second quantitative study was conducted which demonstrates the influence the social brand value construct has for consumers brand evangelism and willingness to pay a price premium and hence the value contribution of the social brand value for consumers.

Firestorms: Modeling conflict diffusion and management strategies in online communities

Abstract This study aims to provide a better understanding of how organizations can manage public conflict and firestorms in social media spheres. We develop an agent-based simulation model of conflicts in firm-hosted online communities and find that a collaborating conflict management style characterized by high levels of cooperativeness and assertiveness helps to successfully handle conflict. However, the effectiveness of this collaborative style is highly dependent on contingency factors related to the participating individuals and the social structure within the community itself, such as the number of moderators and aggressors present in the community, their credibility, as well as the overall opinion of the community. Depending on these factors, collaborating and accommodating conflict management becomes more or less successful. Under some configurations it is even less effective than more competitive and assertive management styles. Therefore, to successfully handle conflict and restrain the escalation of a firestorm, organizations need to optimally adapt their conflict management style to varying conditions by considering individual-level and community-level characteristics.

User roles and team structures in a crowdsourcing community for international development – a social network perspective

ABSTRACT The principles of crowdsourcing are increasingly applied in social contexts like development projects. In this study we explore a crowdsourcing community, which aims to find innovation to enhance conditions for women and girls in developing countries. Overall, the observed community shows a high level of collaboration and reciprocal dialogue. We further explore differences between teams and individual community members. While on the individual level we located four different user roles distinct in their interaction and contribution behavior, on the team level we identified the importance of distinct user roles on team performance. We contribute to the theory of crowdsourcing by illustrating that context and purpose of crowdsourcing initiatives may influence the behavioral pattern of users. This study contributes to theory about virtual teams by providing a better understanding about team structures in the context of crowdsourcing. Further we add insights to the junctures between crowdsourcing and social innovation in the context of open development.

Crowdsourcing: How Social Media and the Wisdom of the Crowd Change Future Companies

Rather than constituting only a new method in the context of innovation that can help foster a business, crowdsourcing represents a new way of structuring and organizing work by relying on the principles of evolution, swarm intelligence and analog knowledge, self-selection, and task distribution and aggregation. More and more companies try to leverage the distributed intelligence of their customers, suppliers, employees, and internet users by setting up crowdsourcing platforms and broadcasting their problems and tasks to the internal and external crowd. Although crowdsourcing has become quite popular, it also faces some difficulties that must be overcome in order to provide value. The lack of a clear task description and problem explanation, of an appealing platform design, solid terms and constrains of participation, or of a fair price structure may create difficulties for companies applying crowdsourcing. But, once they have gained the relevant knowledge, companies can truly benefit from crowdsourcing and develop superior innovations.

Network Structure and User Roles of a Crowdsourcing Community – The Context of Social Innovations for a Development Project

The principles of crowdsourcing are increasingly applied in social contexts like development projects. In this study we explore a crowdsourcing community, which aims to enhance conditions in low income communities. We investigate the network structures of the community and detect behavioral pattern and user roles based on participation behavior for this specific context. Overall, the observed community shows a high level of collaboration and reciprocal dialogue. On the individual level we located four different user roles distinct in their interaction and contribution behavior. So called “collaborators” are considered as unique user role in an online community within a social context. We contribute to the theory of crowdsourcing by illustrating that context and purpose of crowdsourcing initiatives may influence the behavioral pattern of users. Further we add insights to the junctures between crowdsourcing and social innovation in the context of

Fair play: perceived fairness in crowdsourcing competitions and the customer relationship-related consequences

Purpose Companies are discovering the power of crowdsourcing as a source of new ideas for products and services. It is assumed that the personal engagement and the continuous involvement with a company’s products or services over a period of several weeks positively affect participants’ loyalty intentions toward the host companies. The research leads the authors to challenge this assumption. In addition to mere participation in crowdsourcing initiatives, the authors argue that perceptions of fairness will explain changes in customer relationship-related consequences such as loyalty, perceived innovativeness and product interest. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyzed a real-life crowdsourcing contest launched by a leading lighting manufacturer and investigated the impact of two fairness dimensions (distributive and procedural) on participants’ future behavioral and attitudinal intentions (n=121). The analysis was performed with SEM. Findings The results suggest that fairness perceptions are significantly related to evoked product interest, perceived innovativeness and loyalty intentions. The analysis reveals that the influence of the fairness dimensions is asymmetric: while distributive fairness can be considered as a basic factor that must be fulfilled in order to avoid negative behavioral consequences, procedural fairness instead is an excitement factor that causes truly positive behavioral consequences. Research limitations/implications The results are particularly relevant for companies launching a crowdsourcing competition under their own brand name, and for broadcasting platforms. For companies with no relations to end-users, these findings may not be as relevant. Practical implications Organizers of crowdsourcing contests should be aware that such initiatives can be a double-edged sword. Fair Play is a must to gain the positive effects from crowdsourcing initiatives for both new product development and the customer relationship. For companies lacking the capabilities to manage crowdsourcing initiatives professionally it is advisable to rely on intermediary broadcasting platforms. Originality/value The research is the first to investigate systematically the consequences of fairness perceptions in a real-life crowdsourcing idea contest. The authors demonstrate the asymmetric nature of fairness perceptions on three different outcome variables that are important for the customer relationship.