Universität zu Köln

Kratzer, Jan, Lettl, Christopher, Franke, Nikolaus and Gloor, Peter A. (2016). The Social Network Position of Lead Users. J. Prod. Innov. Manage., 33 (2). S. 201 - 217. HOBOKEN: WILEY. ISSN 1540-5885

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Abstract

The field of lead user research has seen a great deal of attention from academics and practitioners alike. However, we still lack a full understanding of the nature of users with high potential for innovation. In this paper, we employ a social network perspective on lead users. Increasing the realism of our research in three empirical studies with different empirical settings and methods, we provide robust evidence that lead users have a distinctive social network position: They exhibit an unusually high level of betweenness centrality, meaning that they are positioned as bridges between different social groups. This finding has two major implications for lead user theory. First, it consolidates seminal conceptual work on lead users and their embeddedness in social networks. And second, the findings extend and validate prior work on the social network perspective of lead users by combining theoretical insights from cognitive psychology, research on creativity, and network theory. As the social network positions of individuals can be mapped quickly and at low cost with modern Web mining tools, our findings may point to a new and readily applicable approach for the efficient and effective identification of lead users in real-life projects, an aspect that is usually emphasized as the most crucial activity in lead user projects.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Kratzer, Jan UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Lettl, Christopher UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Franke, Nikolaus UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Gloor, Peter A. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-283875
DOI:	10.1111/jpim.12291
Journal or Publication Title:	J. Prod. Innov. Manage.
Volume:	33
Number:	2
Page Range:	S. 201 - 217
Date:	2016
Publisher:	WILEY
Place of Publication:	HOBOKEN
ISSN:	1540-5885
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language INNOVATIONS; PERFORMANCE; CREATIVITY; NETNOGRAPHY; DIFFUSION; KNOWLEDGE; FUTURE; FIELD Multiple languages Business; Engineering, Industrial; Management Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/28387