Whom Should Firms Attract to Open Innovation Platforms? The Role of Knowledge Diversity and Motivation

This study explores how the motivation and knowledge of individuals participating in innovation projects broadcast on the Internet affect their contribution performance. By analyzing a data set that combines information from the content analysis of postings and matched survey data from contributors, we find that extrinsic and intrinsic motivations affect the number of different types of contributions to solution threads. While extrinsic desire for monetary rewards tends to be positively related to the making of non-substantial contributions, intrinsic enjoyment tends to breed more substantial postings, and knowledge diversity facilitates all types of contributions to open innovation projects. This study also finds support for interaction effects between motivation and knowledge diversity. We identify the most valuable contributors as those who combine high levels of intrinsic enjoyment in contributing with a cognitive base fed from diverse knowledge domains. Our research complements emerging findings on the individual performance of external problem solvers in crowdsourcing and broadcast search. The findings will be useful for platform managers striving to attract potentially valuable participants to ensure high levels of substantial contributions to innovation challenges.