Personality traits and user innovation engagement in open innovation platform: the moderating role of social network position

ABSTRACT

Users are playing an increasingly vital role in innovation. Previous studies have shown that personality traits are crucial factors in innovation engagement. However, there is no consensus regarding the impact of some personality traits on innovation engagement. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of Big Five personality traits on user innovation engagement in an open innovation platform, including idea and comment contributions, and further explored the interaction effect of social network position and personality traits. The data collected from IdeaExchange, a user innovation platform hosted by Salesforce, were analyzed. The results show that extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience positively correlate with user innovation engagement, whereas neuroticism negatively correlates with user innovation engagement. Additionally, social network position negatively moderated the impact of agreeableness on idea contribution, and positively moderated the impact of both conscientiousness and openness to experience on idea contribution. The conclusions provide a theoretical basis for platform managers to formulate open innovation strategies and incentivise user innovation engagement.

KEYWORDS:

• Open innovation platform
• user innovation engagement
• Big Five personality traits

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [grant number 2021M69235].