The central characteristics of corporate innovation communities

Abstract

Many scholars have examined the role of communities in knowledge sharing (Faraj, Jarvenpaa, & Majchrzak, 2011; Faraj & Johnson, 2011) and innovative activities (Bansemir et al., 2012; Franke & Shah, 2003; Franke, Keinz, & Schreier, 2008). A review of these studies exhibits that scholars differ considerably in their understanding of the term innovation community (Muhdi & Boutellier, 2011). The divergent conceptualizations of the community concept constrain scientists to clearly state their specific understanding of the term innovation community. As West and Lakhani put it: “We encourage researchers to explicitly articulate the theoretical and phenomenological boundaries of their use of the term, both to build upon earlier scholarship and to enable subsequent scholars to build on them” (2008: 224).