Standing out in a crowd: Self-presentation, perceived innovativeness and novelty of the topics and knowledge sharing in user community

User innovation has proven to be an effective paradigm of innovation over the past few decades. Research has shown that user innovation has emerged in various forms as a result of innovative acts initiated by individuals,... [ view full abstract ]

User innovation has proven to be an effective paradigm of innovation over the past few decades. Research has shown that user innovation has emerged in various forms as a result of innovative acts initiated by individuals, users/consumers and their communities in areas such as rodeo kayaking (Hienerth, 2006), mountain biking (Christian et al., 2005), surgical instruments (Hippel et al., 2000) and software for music composition (Jeppesen and Frederiksen, 2006). In user communities, users not only share their innovation-related knowledge but also develop it by giving and receiving feedback from other users (Pisano and Verganti, 2008, Franke and Shah, 2003 and Hau and Kim, 2011), which makes it possible for the communities to work as a major source of innovations (Von Hippel, 2005, Von Hippel, 2007, Jeppesen and Molin, 2003 and Hau and Kim, 2011).
To facilitate the knowledge exchange and collaborative innovation, many large organizations have established online user or customer communities by themselves and introduced social technology platforms to support them. Online communities are also increasingly established to share knowledge across and outside organizational borders (e.g., Faraj, Jarvenpaa, & Majchrzak, 2011; Jeppesen & Lakhani, 2010).
However, the process of the online ideas sharing and social query are not always functioning well. When questions or ideas are posted in a community, unexpected results can be found such as: getting negative feedback, getting wrong or contradictory answers; continued responses even after the problem was solved; and never getting an answer (Morris et al., 2010). And at the meantime, some ideas or questions may look more attractive than others. For example, according to Horowitz and Kamvar (2012), some problems such as more open-ended questions, recommendation’s requests, advices and opinions are better solved by people.
To explain why individuals choose to provide their ideas and even prototypes for solving problems in new ways, prior research on user innovation and online knowledge sharing has pointed toward social motives such as hedonic and utilitarian motives, fun and learning experience, reputation enhancement, commitment to the community, and generalized reciprocity (e.g., Stock, Oliveira and von Hippel 2015; Hienert, von Hippel, and Jensen, 2014; Raasch and von Hippel, 2013; Lakhani and Von Hippel, 2003; Lakhani and Wolf, 2005;). Such benefits are particularly important because many online sites do not offer explicit rewards or incentives for online knowledge sharing among their registered users.
However, these motives found in previous literature still need to be supplemented because they cannot well explain why some topics or problems are better discussed or solved than others, and also why some user communities can attract more contributors and have more active knowledge sharing interactions. The purpose of this research study is to understand the antecedents of online knowledge sharing from the social cognitive perspective. The extent to which users actually engage in positive self-presentation may be determined by dispositional and contextual variables. In the present research, we investigated possible predictors of positive self-presentation on at individual and interpersonal level. Specifically, in order to better understand the mechanism why some people would prefer some topics over others, we introduced the mediating role of self-presentation in the relationship between knowledge self-efficacy, peer feedback and knowledge sharing.
And if lack of unique self-presentation impedes community knowledge and idea sharing, organizations and managers need to identify how to mitigate this effect. We propose that a user’s anticipation of the possibility to fully present oneself, which have been estimated by perceived innovativeness and novelty of the topic, can affect one’s social cognition patterns that we have described. For example, when users are confronted with problems which require them to provide new ideas or solutions, they may find themselves holding the chances to build their community impression in a unique way, which will enhance their motivation to share with others relevant knowledge and ideas. On the other hand, when faced with questions of fixed answers, users will get less motivated to take those topics seriously and may even leave the answers to others.
We draw on organizational theories of the theory of reasoned action (TRA) (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) and self-determination theory (SDT) (Deci and Ryan, 2008) to analyze why individuals allocate attention to some problems rather than others. As a baseline, we propose that this cognitive process will be influenced by the knowledge self-efficacy and previous peer feedback on specific topic area, which will lead to more confidence in users showing their unique identity presentation, and thus provide more motivation in knowledge sharing. Finally, we propose that the perceived innovativeness and novelty of the topic can moderate the effects of self-efficacy and peer feedback on a user’s motivation to present oneself by enlarging the scope in which a user can elaborate and reducing the negative influence previous peer feedback may have on self-presentation. Our hypotheses are summarized in Figure 1. We preliminarily test our hypotheses using data from online questionnaires, in which all of the respondents have experience in communities. We will then try to expand the sample to consumers in specific user communities to have more accurate reflection of the situation.
Our study contributes to conversations about why users choose to contribute to some topics rather than others, with broader implications for community innovation in user innovation environments. We take a different perspective from prior research and highlight the theoretical importance of self-presentation for influencing what triggers more innovation enthusiasm. Examining the increasingly pressing question of why users devote more effort and time on particular topics also contributes to our understanding of online knowledge sharing, a phenomenon of growing practical significance within and across organizations. Perhaps, at its core, the study helps to illuminate a challenge of central importance to organizations: understanding why some innovative trials are getting more support, while others do not. It is also of practical importance since many organizations use online community to facilitate communicating and innovating for consumers. But for an online community to function effectively, voluntary and active participation from knowledge providers should be guaranteed.