Electronic word-of-mouth communities from the perspective of social network analysis

This paper is focused on the identification of influencers that can have an important impact over the decision-making of other users. For this purpose, a popular electronic word-of-mouth community like Ciao.com has been modelled as a social network. Using social network analysis techniques, the existence of influencers is justified by the power law distribution of user participation, and then they are identified using their topological features within the social network. The obtained results reveal that influencers are not determined by the number of performed reviews, but by the variety or scope of their performed reviews and their central position in the consumer network. The main contribution of this research is the identification of influencers based on the participation features of community users. As a difference to other studies, results are not based on surveys or opinions, but on the trace users leave when they post opinions, comments or scores.     

The relationship between innovation network and innovation capability: a social network perspective

The key for acquiring innovation capability is knowledge transmission which is primarily based on the closer and tighter connections among businesses and other actors within innovation networks. Previous literature of patent analysis based on social network only explains the most influential corporations within an industry through social network indicators, but did not investigate the impact of these indicators on a firm’s innovation capability. This study uses social network perspective ‘centrality, cohesion and density’ to investigate the relationship between innovation network and innovation capability in the global semiconductor industry. Two purposes of this study are: (1) to investigate the innovation network relationship within the semiconductor industry at different periods and its evolution and (2) to study whether network position occupied by a firm in innovation network influences innovation capability. The empirical results show that firms with higher centrality and higher density have stronger innovation capability, but the weaker innovation capability with closer connection of sub-cluster (cohesion).     

Customer preferences versus managerial decision-making in open innovation communities: the case of Starbucks

Customers can participate in open innovation communities posting innovation ideas, which in turn can receive comments and votes from the rest of the community, highlighting user preferences. However, the final decision about implementing innovations corresponds to the company. This paper is focused on the customers' activity in open innovation communities. The aim is to identify the main topics of customers' interests in order to compare these topics with managerial decision-making. The results obtained reveal first that both votes and comments can be used to predict user preferences; and second, that customers tend to promote those innovations by reporting more comfort and benefits. In contrast, managerial decisions are more focused on the distinctive features associated with the brand image.     

浅议发展社会工作对社会管理创新的意义

在欧美国家社会工作在社会管理方面担任着重要的角色。当前中国社会转型时期是把社会工作引入到社会管理创新的极好契机。应当通过传播社会工作理念、建设社会工作人才队伍、培育民间社工组织机构、推行政府购买服务等途径推动社会工作发展,充分发挥社会工作具有亲和力和实效性、整合社会资源、调整社会心理和社会关系、推动党的群众工作变革等方面的优势和作用,为社会群体与居民提供专业化、个体化的优质社会服务,从而有力地推动了社会管理创新。     

Content analysis of open innovation communities using latent semantic indexing

The internationalisation of corporate research is an issue with a large impact on strategic decision-making within the research-intensive pharmaceutical industry. However, sector-wide comparative statistics on the whereabouts of corporate research activities and the geographic distribution of their research partners is scarce. This paper describes the international research profiles of Europe's top 10 largest multinational pharmaceutical companies based on publication counts and author address information drawn from the thousands of pharmaceutical research articles published in 2005–2006. The results provide relevant aggregate-level background intelligence for strategic analysis of the industry's internationalisation processes and research cooperation patterns. The overall statistics indicate that international research activity of European industry is significantly more oriented towards the US science base than vice versa. Company-level statistical data on the research cooperation involving each company's central research centres based in country of corporate headquarters, reveal quite distinctive geographical characteristics alongside differential preferences for in-house or external research partners.     

How open search strategies align with firms’ radical and incremental innovation: evidence from China

The purpose of this paper is to describe the ways in which open search strategies (i.e. open search breadth and open search depth) align with firms’ radical and incremental innovation. By analysing survey data collected from 162 firms in Chinese high-tech markets, we found that a firm pursuing radical innovation benefits more from open search breadth than open search depth to achieve its performance goals; in contrast, a firm processing incremental innovation benefits more from open search depth than open search breadth to improve its performance. Based on these results, managers should pay attention to the fit between open search strategies and radical/incremental innovation. This study not only contributes to the studies of search strategies by identifying the parallel relationship of open search strategies and two types of innovation, but also enriches the theory of open innovation with an empirical analysis.     

数字经济产业园区企业网络嵌入、数字化能力与开放式创新

以社会网络理论、动态能力理论等为理论基础,研究数字经济产业园区企业网络嵌入对开放式创新的影响。研究发现：网络嵌入显著正向影响数字经济产业园区企业开放式创新。机制分析表明,网络嵌入通过影响数字化能力进而提升数字经济产业园区企业开放式创新水平。进一步讨论发现,网络嵌入的子维度关系性网络嵌入对数字化能力的三个子维度数字感知能力、数字化运营能力、数字资源协同能力具有显著的正向影响;网络嵌入的子维度结构性网络嵌入对数字化能力的子维度数字感知能力和数字化运营能力具有显著的正向影响,但对数字资源整合能力的影响并不显著。本文对于数字经济产业园区构建协同共生网络生态,提高园区企业网络嵌入程度,进而培育和构建数字化能力,提高区域开放式创新水平提供了理论基础和一定的实践指导。     

The role of contracts and intellectual property rights in open innovation

Our exploratory empirical study, based on interviews and a survey of firms, addresses a number of questions on the role of formal contracts and intellectual property rights (IPR) in the context of firm-to-firm open innovation (OI). We find that firms active in OI have a very strong preference for the governance of their OI relationships with other firms through formal contracts. Also, despite the open nature of OI, firms still see IPR as highly relevant to the protection of their innovative capabilities. We find the degree of openness of firms, their formal legal attitude, and the competitive dynamics of their product market environment to be related to the preference of OI firms for IPR. Furthermore, the strength of firms’ internal R&D capabilities increases the positive relationship between openness and the preference for IPR.     

科学驱动视角下产业创新网络与生态主体研究——以5G产业为例

利用产业科学关联度指标清晰界定科学驱动的产业与创新,通过社会网络分析方法探究其在整个产业中的网络地位及其作用,并挖掘产业创新生态参与主体的网络关系。研究发现：科学驱动的创新成果处于网络中心位置,更容易被频繁的引用,能够为其他创新成果提供经验输出和知识依赖,成为驱动创新发展的基石,同时科学驱动的创新成果审查周期和技术覆盖广度在数值上显著大于“技术驱动的创新”,表明其能够产生高价值技术的可能性更大;科学驱动的产业是科学驱动的创新大量汇聚的产业,是整个行业发展的关键核心技术,具备取得、协调及配置资源的能力,能够整合内外部信息和知识资源,通过频繁的交流、协作带动其他产业的共同发展,为产业的形成演化奠定基础;在科学驱动的产业中,创新主体之间网络结构紧密,产学研协同融合体系发挥重要作用,企业占据主体地位成为创新的主体和参与科学研究的主体,而大学等公共机构的创新成果传播速度更快,在创新网络中的中心性地位具有不可替代的优势。     

Collaboration and innovation: An empirical study of Indian technological enterprises

In 2010, the Indian government declared 2010–2020 to be the ‘Decade of Innovation’ and established the State Innovation Councils and Sectoral Innovation Councils to encourage and facilitate innovation by technological firms. In this paper, we study the relationship between collaboration and innovation in a cross‐section of Indian firms, paying particular attention to the impact of the innovation councils. Our results suggest that domestic collaborations have an important impact on firm innovation, as do the innovation councils, but that the impact of the councils is less for firms that collaborate.     

The architecture of R&D joint projects: the social network analysis approach

This paper examines the effect of network properties on the performance R&D joint projects. In particular, we examine the impact of network cohesion, diversity and shape on the performance of these of exploration and exploitation R&D projects. We test these measures using data on projects from European R&D networks developed under the framework of Eureka projects. The empirical results indicated some network properties enhance the project’s performance and these differ depending on the kind of technological project developed. Our results suggest a lower heterogeneity, greater cohesion and network centralisation in exploitation than in exploration projects. Our findings show different types of structures depending on the aim of the joint project and that there exist different degrees of cohesion between the partners that comprise the core and the peripheral nodes.     

An investigation over inbound open innovation in SMEs: insights from an Italian manufacturing sample

ABSTRACT

Building on the Open Innovation (OI) framework, the purpose of this paper is to examine the R&D inbound model of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, we focus on the impact of different horizontal R&D collaborations on product innovation and innovation performance. Hypotheses are tested using a Probit/Tobit regression on an Italian sample of 2591 manufacturing SMEs. Our analysis shows that collaborating with different horizontal R&D partners brings to different innovation outcomes. In particular, R&D collaboration with universities has a positive impact on product innovation, but not on innovation performance. Whereas, R&D collaboration with research centres and other private companies has a positive impact on both product innovation and innovation performance. Our findings provide implications for SMEs managers and entrepreneurs who have to decide between R&D partners for their innovation strategy. Avenues for future research are discussed.     

Exploring a theoretical framework to structure the public policy implications of open innovation

Open innovation is increasingly popular among practitioners and scholars, but its implications for public policy making have not yet been analysed in detail. This paper explores a theoretical framework to structure the debate about public policy making that facilitates open innovation. We first define open innovation in terms of firms’ open innovation practices and external conditions that encourage enterprises to practice open innovation. We show that policies for open innovation are legitimate as traditional arguments like market and system failures continue to apply. Next, we identify several guidelines for policymaking. Rather than just offering R&D and interaction-oriented policies, we conclude that open innovation warrants attention in a broader range of policy areas, including entrepreneurship, education, science, labour markets and competition. Developing truly horizontal policies is a major challenge to facilitate open innovation in developed economies.     

Contributions of brokerage roles to firms' innovation in a confectionery cluster

Scholars have provided valuable insights into the networking phenomenon and its impact on firms' performance. Nonetheless, a wide spectrum of issues remains unexplored. Using the network approach, this paper examines the different patterns of intermediation between otherwise disconnected firms and its impact on innovation performance. Our research was conducted on a well-known confectionery cluster in the Valencia region. The data allowed us to calculate four brokerage roles, depending on the affiliation of the organisations involved. Through these values, we open the ‘black box’ of brokerage by examining the differential contributions made to innovation performance by the coordinator, gatekeeper, representative, and liaison roles. These differences between roles are based on the tacit or explicit nature of the knowledge transferred and the specificities of each broker profile. Consequently, the research makes a relevant contribution to the network and cluster literatures and implies some useful recommendations for policy-makers and individual firms.     

社会认同理论视角下的企业创新绩效前因组态研究

创新是企业竞争优势的重要来源,也是企业可持续发展的关键动力。探究企业创新的影响因素及其作用机制对于企业创新发展具有理论价值和现实意义。基于社会认同理论,本研究建立包含团队断裂带、团队异质性、环境不确定性以及企业声誉等要素在内的企业创新影响机制模型。通过对66家电子信息企业样本进行模糊集定性比较分析,本研究探究企业内部结构与外部环境的各个要素对于企业创新的协同效应与联动关系。研究发现: 高企业创新绩效的驱动路径有三条,路径1强调在高环境不确定性、高企业声誉情境下,低高管团队学术背景异质性及低断裂带距离有利于实现高企业创新绩效;路径2强调在高环境不确定性、高企业声誉情境下,高团队学历异质性与低断裂带强度有利于实现高企业创新绩效;路径3强调在高环境不确定性、低企业声誉情境下,高团队断裂带强度与低团队断裂带距离有利于实现高企业创新绩效。研究结果拓展了社会身份理论在企业创新领域的应用,也为企业创新绩效的提升提供了新的思路。     

Managing knowledge sharing in distributed innovation from the perspective of developers: empirical study of open source software projects in China

Knowledge sharing is the key factor that influences the performance of open source software (OSS) projects, which are the representative cases of distributed innovation. This paper aims to explore the mechanism of knowledge sharing in OSS projects from the perspective of developers in China. A quantitative method with the analysis of 403 valid questionnaires is adopted. A series of hypotheses about how distributed innovation (independent variables) influences knowledge sharing (mediating variable) and then affects the performance of OSS projects (dependent variable) are tested and approved. On the one side, we argue that developers will actively affect knowledge sharing in terms of participative motivation, social network and organisational culture. On the other hand, users may also affect the knowledge sharing when considering innovation willingness and capacity. It is interesting to find that social network is the most important factor in Chinese cases. It is strongly recommended to strengthen the collaboration between software companies and OSS communities.     

R&D internationalisation patterns in the global pharmaceutical industry: evidence from a network analytic perspective

This study adopts a Social Network Analysis (SNA) perspective to investigate global R&D internationalisation patterns of the pharmaceutical industry. We use co-inventorships identified in pharmaceutical patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) between 1996 and 2013, giving rise to an international collaboration network by drawing a cross-country link when a patent lists at least two inventors located in different countries. We describe changing R&D internationalisation patterns by exploring network structures as a whole as well as the changing role of different countries. The results show that R&D internationalisation indeed has gained momentum in pharmaceutical innovation, in particular after the year 2006. The network has developed from a mono-centric, star-like network – with the USA constituting the only hub – to a more distributed and dense network. The relative decline of the USA has not taken place at the expense of emerging economies but at the expense of European countries.     

Making sense of the sharing economy: a business model innovation perspective

ABSTRACT

The emergence of a sharing revolution is leading to a new societal system of collaboration enabled by digital technologies. Although sharing-based initiatives are re-shaping established organisational practices and innovating traditional business models (BMs), existing research fails in grasping the phenomenon's multiple facets. This study aims at making sense of the Sharing Economy (SE) by shedding light on how startups embed the social trend of sharing and leverage digital technologies to develop innovative BMs. We attempt to solve the current theory-practice misalignment by proposing an original framework, definition, and classification of SE startups. The study presents a cluster analysis on 196 SE startups. We argue that SE startups group into five clusters: (i) pseudo-sharing; (ii) gig economy; (iii) crowd-based economy; (iv) pooling economy; and (v) P2P rental. This study contributes to positioning the SE from both a conceptual and an empirical perspective, interpreting the SE phenomenon from the theoretical lenses of BM Innovation, and classifying it through the unit of analysis of startups, intended as empirical vehicles and manifestation of the phenomenon.     

Inbound open innovation in biopharmaceutical firms: unpacking the role of absorptive capacity

In this study, we extend recent attempts to clarify the role of antecedents of absorptive capacity in realising purposive inflows of external knowledge in the biopharmaceutical industry. By assuming that internal R&D resources contribute to absorptive capacity as a multidimensional concept, we propose a framework for the integrated analysis of the interactions between the different antecedents of absorptive capacity and inbound open innovation of biopharmaceutical firms. Our analysis relies on a set-theoretic approach and uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to study a set of selected Italian biopharmaceutical firms. The analysis reveals that biopharmaceutical companies with a diversified R&D business domain and an extended entrepreneurial scientific network are likely to adopt an inbound open innovation strategy.     

Innovation ambidexterity of open firms. The role of internal relational social capital

The success of the open innovation (OI) paradigm is still debated and literature is searching for its determinants. Although firms’ internal social context is crucial to explain the success or failure of OI practices, such context is still poorly investigated. The aim of the paper is to analyse whether internal social capital (SC), intended as employees’ propensity to interact and work in groups in order to solve innovation issues, mediates the relationship between OI practices and innovation ambidexterity (IA). Results, based on a survey research developed in Finland, Italy and Sweden, suggest that collaborations with different typologies of partners (scientific and business) achieve good results in terms of IA, through the partial mediation of the internal SC.