Customer preferences versus managerial decision-making in open innovation communities: the case of Starbucks

Abstract

Customers can participate in open innovation communities posting innovation ideas, which in turn can receive comments and votes from the rest of the community, highlighting user preferences. However, the final decision about implementing innovations corresponds to the company. This paper is focused on the customers' activity in open innovation communities. The aim is to identify the main topics of customers' interests in order to compare these topics with managerial decision-making. The results obtained reveal first that both votes and comments can be used to predict user preferences; and second, that customers tend to promote those innovations by reporting more comfort and benefits. In contrast, managerial decisions are more focused on the distinctive features associated with the brand image.

Keywords:

• open innovation
• innovation policies
• customer communities
• collective intelligence
• decision-making

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

María del Rocío Martínez-Torres is an Associate Professor in Management and Business Administration at Business Administration and Marketing Department, University of Seville. Her main research interests include Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management, and Social Network Analysis. She has co-authored articles in many leading academic and professional journals, including: Information and Management; IEEE Transactions on Education; Computers & Education; and Behaviour and Information Technology.

F. Rodriguez-Piñero is an Assistant Professor at Business Administration and Marketing Department, University of Seville. His research involves e-business, information systems and development of interactive software for instruction in business administration.

Sergio L. Toral is an Associate Professor in Digital Electronic Systems at the Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Seville. His main research interests include Open Source Software projects, Open Innovation and Social Network Analysis.

ORCID

María del Rocío Martínez-Torres http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1640-0020

Sergio L. Toral http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2612-0388

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo under the Research Project with reference P12-SEJ-328 and by the Programa Estatal de Investigación, Desarrollo e Inovación Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad under the Research Project with reference ECO2013-43856-R.