The Online Social Network and User Innovation in the Context of an Online Innovation Platform

Abstract

The wide use of social media technology boosts many online innovation platforms, providing effective communication channels for innovation spreading among online users. From the social network perspective, this paper investigates the impact of online interactive relations on user innovation by holistically examining online relations from relational and structural embeddedness, qualified by both the ego-centered and the entire network, respectively. User interaction data from LEGO Ideas are used to empirically test the effects of relational and structural characteristics of online social networks on users’ idea contributions. The results for relational characteristics reveal that the number of online ties has an inverted U-shaped relationship with user innovation, the strength of online ties positively affects user innovation, and neighbor characteristics cannot affect user innovation. For structural characteristics, both centrality and bridge location positively affect user innovation. The findings provide reasonable suggestions for both online users and innovation platforms.