Management response and user idea generation: evidence from an online open innovation community

In recent years, open innovation communities (OICs), in which users are allowed to post ideas, have become a momentous source of product innovation and development for enterprises. Continuous generation of ideas is critical to the success of an OIC. When users post an idea more than once, they are considered to be conducting re-innovation behavior (RIB). Many enterprises have implemented management response systems in their OICs to motivate users’ RIB and promote the prosperity of the OIC. However, researchers have not yet examined whether management response is an effective management tool for motivating users’ RIB in OICs. This research shows that receiving management response has a positive effect on the volume, quality and novelty of user’s RIB. Furthermore, we found that the enterprise’s official adoption willingness expressed through management response may reduce the volume, quality, and novelty of ideas in user’s RIB, which may have an impact on the enterprise’s insights. Additionally, we conducted heterogeneity analyses to explore the effects of different lengths and sentiments of management response in this mechanism. This research has implications for managers and enterprises and contributes to the literature on management response, idea generation behavior, OICs, and, more broadly, co-innovation between enterprises and consumers.