Authors: Ian Wilkinson; Jeremy Webster
Innovation is an important source of a firm’s competitiveness but innovation is increasingly being understood as the product of interacting networks of firms rather than their independent efforts. Research has examined the nature and role of networks in innovation in various contexts and how it can be managed. One under-researched but increasingly important, form of innovation, in which network interactions play a key role is the development of new software applications or apps, in online communities. This form of innovation lends itself to research because it is accessible, provides information about the network of participants and their interactions over time and the sequences of resulting innovations. We describe how online communities can be studied to test various network based propositions about innovation as well as the effects of contextual factors.
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Publish Year: 2014
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