Mario Schaarschmidt

SME 2.0: Roadmap towards Web 2.0-Based Open Innovation in SME-Networks – A Case Study Based Research Framework

Small- and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are of high social and economic importance since they represent 99% of European enterprises. With regard to their restricted resources, SMEs are facing a limited capacity for innovation to compete with new challenges in a complex and dynamic competitive environment. Given this context, SMEs need to increasingly cooperate to generate innovations on an extended resource base. Our research project focuses on the aspect of open innovation in SME-networks enabled by Web 2.0 applications and referring to innovative solutions of non-competitive daily life problems. Examples are industrial safety, work-life balance issues or pollution control. The project raises the question whether the use of Web 2.0 applications can foster the exchange of creativity and innovative ideas within a network of SMEs and hence catalyze new forms of innovation processes among its participants. Using Web 2.0 applications within SMEs implies consequently breaking down innovation processes to employees’ level and thus systematically opening up a heterogeneous and broader knowledge base to idea generation. In this paper we address first steps on a roadmap towards Web 2.0-based open innovation processes within SME-networks. It presents a general framework for interaction activities leading to open innovation and recommends a regional marketplace as a viable, trust-building driver for further collaborative activities. These findings are based on field research within a specific SME-network in Rhineland-Palatinate Germany, the “WirtschaftsForum Neuwied e.V.”, which consists of roughly 100 heterogeneous SMEs employing about 8,000 workers.

How do firms influence open source software communities? A framework and empirical analysis of different governance modes

This paper explores how software firms can apply different types of governance approaches to open source software development projects (OSSDPs) and draws on control theory to propose that firms may influence OSSDPs by employing either leadership or resource deployment control. A matrix differentiating four types of OSSDPs: firm- versus community-initiated projects and one participating firm (single-vendor projects) versus many firms (multivendor projects), and accompanying hypotheses regarding a firms participation for each type are developed. Using data from 83 Eclipse projects to test the hypotheses, findings indicate that (1) firms more actively employ both leadership and resource deployment in firm-initiated projects than in community-initiated ones and (2) firms are more likely to use resource deployment control over leadership control in multivendor projects. Key theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. We differentiate four types of open source software development.We develop the notion of resource deployment control as an extension of clan control.We use data from Eclipse projects to test five resulting hypotheses.

Corporate Web 2.0 Applications

The term “Web 2.0”, by using a version number, suggests a misleading technological leap by characterizing a new occupancy of Internet technologies. Rather, in contrast to Web 1.0, which centered on defining and creating destinations for web users, Web 2.0 pertains to people and content. We adopt O’Reilly’s definition of the new occupancy of the Internet, as follows:

Effects of customer-based corporate reputation on perceived risk and relational outcomes: empirical evidence from gender moderation in fashion retailing

Purpose Given the strategic importance of firm reputation because of its potential for value creation, extant reputation research focuses on favorable customer outcomes. This study proposes and tests a model that relates the customer-based corporate reputation (CBR) of fashion retailers to customer-perceived risk and two relational outcomes – trust and commitment. In addition, this study aims to test whether or not the hypothesized paths are equally strong for male and female shoppers. Design/methodology/approach Data for this study were collected through an online survey approach. Using a sample of more than 300 retail customers and structural equation modeling, the authors tested the hypotheses. Findings Drawing on previous research, the commitment–trust theory of relationship marketing and signaling theory, the authors find support for direct and indirect links between retailers’ reputation and relational outcomes, the intervening role of perceived risk and the partially moderational role of gender. Practical implications The findings of this research suggest that a retailer’s positive reputation can reduce customers’ risk and engender trust, which in turn promotes customer commitment. Originality/value A growing number of examples suggests that retailers (specially fashion retailers) need to manage their reputation, which can come under threat in myriad ways, and its outcomes. However, so far, no individual study empirically investigated any of these reputation outcomes simultaneously or considered gender differences. Thus, the authors address an important research gap by examining the mechanism through which CBR affects relevant customer outcomes and by considering contextual factors.

Customer Interaction and Innovation in Hybrid Offerings: Investigating Moderation and Mediation Effects for Goods and Services Innovation

Hybrid offerings are bundles of goods and services offerings provided by the same firm. Bundling value offerings affects how firms innovate, interact with customers, and customize their goods and services. However, it remains unclear how customer interaction might drive the innovation performance of various bundled components. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of customer interactions and service customization on both goods and services innovations in a hybrid offering context, using a unique data set of 146 information technology and manufacturing firms. Customer interaction appears beneficial to both goods and services innovation in a hybrid offerings context, but service customization has different direct effects on goods versus services innovation. As a potential mediator, customer knowledge mobilization resources exert different effects on the goods and services elements of hybrid offerings. Furthermore, for high-interaction customers, medium levels of technical modularity lead to most favorable innovation outcomes for services innovation. The results thus suggest that providers of hybrid offerings should foster customer interactions, to drive the innovation performance of the good and service components, while still making sure to implement service customization strategies. These findings have notable implications for service innovation research.

Service productivity:what stops service firms from measuring it?

Productivity measurement poses a challenge for service organizations. Conventional management wisdom holds that this challenge is rooted in the difficulty of accurately quantifying service inputs and outputs. Few service firms have adequate service productivity measurement (SPM) systems in place and implementing such systems may involve organizational transformation. Combining field interviews and literature-based insights, the authors develop a conceptual model of antecedents of SPM in service firms and test it using data from 276 service firms. Results indicate that one out of five antecedents affects the choice to use SPM, namely, the degree of service standardization. In addition, all five hypothesized antecedents and one additional antecedent (perceived appropriateness of the current SPM) predict the degree of SPM usage. In particular, the degree of SPM is positively influenced by the degree of service standardization, service customization, investments in service productivity gains, and the appropriateness of current service productivity measures. In turn, customer integration and the perceived difficulty of measuring service productivity negatively affect SPM. The fact that customer integration impedes actual measurement of service productivity is a surprising finding, given that customer integration is widely seen as a means to increase service productivity. The authors conclude with implications for service organizations and directions for research.

Surface-acting outcomes among service employees with two jobs

Purpose – Service firms increasingly hire employees that work two or more jobs. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory and the notion that employees have finite emotional resources, the purpose of this paper is to examine the consequences of emotional labour among employees who simultaneously work in two service jobs. The authors posit that emotional labour requirements from the primary job (PJ) and secondary job (SJ) interact to emotionally exhaust employees through a process of resource depletion. Specifically, building on extant work, this research tests a theoretical mediation model of surface acting predicting organizational commitment through emotional exhaustion. Design/methodology/approach – Employing a predictive survey approach, 171 frontline-service employees with two jobs from a variety of service industries are surveyed in two waves. The hypothesized model is tested using a bootstrap procedure for testing indirect effects. In addition, the authors investigate first- and second-stag...

Between organization and community: investigating turnover intention factors of firm-sponsored open source software developers

While research has extensively studied the group of voluntary contributors and their motivation to participate in open source software (OSS) development, we lack an understanding of how firm-sponsored developers behave when they work for an OSS project. In specific, firm-sponsored developers may face identification conflicts arising from different social norms and beliefs inherent in both the organizational culture of their employing company and dominant OSS cultures. These conflicts may induce developer turnover intention towards the organization and the OSS community. This research seeks to identify identification-related determinants that drive turnover intention by surveying Linux kernel developers (N=321). This study finds, among others, that perceived external reputation of the employing organization reduces turnover intention towards the company while perceived own reputation dampens turnover intention directed towards the OSS community.

Private-Collective Innovation and Open Source Software: Longitudinal Insights from Linux Kernel Development

While in early years, software technology companies such as IBM and Novell invested time and resources in open source software (OSS) development, today even user firms (e.g., Samsung) invest in OSS development. Thus, today’s professional OSS projects receive contributions from hobbyists, universities, research centers, as well as software vendors and user firms. Theorists have referred to this kind of combined public and private investments in innovation creation as private-collective innovation. In particular, the private-collective innovation model seeks to explain why firms privately invest resources to create artifacts that share the characteristics of non-rivalry and non-excludability. The aim of this research is to investigate how different contributor groups associated with public and increasing private interests interact in an OSS development project. The results of the study show that the balance between private and collective contributors in the Linux kernel development seems to be changing to an open source project that is mostly developed jointly by private companies.

Firms' Resource Deployment and Project Leadership in Open Source Software Development

When using the open source software (OSS), development model firms face the challenge to balance the tension between the integration of knowledge from external individuals and the desire for control. In our investigation, we draw upon a data set consisting of 109 projects with 912 individual programmers and 110 involved firms and show how those different projects are governed in terms of project leadership. Our four hypotheses show that despite the wish for external knowledge from voluntary programmers firms are relying on own resources or those from other firms to control a project, that projects with low firm participation are mainly led by voluntary committers, and that projects with high firm participation are mainly led by paid leaders. This research extends the dominating literature by providing empirical evidence in that area and helps to deepen our understanding of firm participation in OSS projects as a form of open innovation activity.