Integrated They Innovate: Toward a Comprehensive View of Online Crowds, Knowledge Types, and Open Innovation

• In Event: Communicating Organizational Knowledge

Abstract

Employing temporary online crowds to generate innovative ideas has recently gained significant attention from researchers. However, despite the large amount of research that has repeatedly demonstrated the value of crowd-generated ideas, the difficulty of synthesizing various types of knowledge in producing innovation has rarely been discussed. Our study extends current knowledge management research by examining the effects of different knowledge types on innovative outcomes. Based on observing twenty-one online innovation challenges, the findings showed that the degree of innovativeness depends on the types of knowledge contributed prior to knowledge synthesis. In particular, the innovativeness of integrative solutions was determined by prior assumptions of non-integrators and prior questions raised by both integrators and non-integrators. Prior random ideas turned out to be detrimental to innovative knowledge integration. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Authors

• Yao Sun, U of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication

• Ann Majchrzak, U of Southern California