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Research in the business-to-business (B2B) and user entrepreneurship literature agrees that “user-driven” perspectives allow entrepreneurs to develop innovative products superior to conventional products. Other researchers argue that such “user-driven” products have limited success and limited impact in certain markets (e.g. niche and industrial markets). This study aims to understand the extent to which user input or co-creation becomes critical in determining product performance.

The key informant approach is used for data collection. Data were collected using a survey instrument via an online panel. Existing scales are used to measure all the focal constructs. Partial least square-based structural equation modeling was used to check for the psychometric properties of the scales and test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that user entrepreneurship is significantly related to firm collaboration efforts and customer collaboration efforts in the B2B market. Both firm collaboration efforts and customer collaboration efforts are significantly related to product performance and mediate the relationship between user entrepreneurship and product performance. Also, findings show that there is an “n” relationship between firm collaboration efforts and product performance.

This study supports the concerns raised by researchers about the dark side of value co-creation and highlights that value co-creation can impede product performance when user entrepreneurs lay too much emphasis on the collaboration processes.

Despite the keen interest in radical and incremental innovation, few studies have tested the varying impact of firm-level factors in service sectors. This paper analyses how collaboration with existing and prospective users and investments in knowledge management (KM) practices can be adapted to maximise the outputs of radical and incremental process innovation in a knowledge-intensive business service industry.

Original survey data from 166 information technology service firms and interviews with 13 executives provide the empirical evidence. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data.

Collaboration with different types of users, and investments in KM practices affect radical versus incremental process innovation differently. Collaboration with existing users influences incremental process innovation directly, but not radical innovation; and prospective user collaboration matters for radical, but not incremental innovation. Furthermore, for radical innovation, investments in KM practices mediate the impact of prospective user collaboration on innovation.

While collaboration with existing users for incremental process innovations does not appear to generate significant managerial challenges, to pursue radical innovations firms must engage in intensive collaboration with prospective users. Higher involvement with prospective users requires higher investment in KM practices to promote efficient intra- and inter-firm knowledge flows.

This study is based on a large-scale survey, together with management interviews. Radical and incremental innovations in the service industry require engagements with different kinds of users, and the use of KM tools.

In this research, the authors focus on mobile cloud computing (MCC) collaboration apps that are multiplatform and send the users’ data to the cloud. Despite their benefits, MCC collaboration apps raise privacy concerns, as the users’ information is sent to the cloud where users lack direct control. This study aims to investigate why users disclose information to MCC apps despite privacy concerns and examine the effect of security and assurance mechanisms (i.e. privacy policies and ISO/IEC 27018 certification) on users’ perceptions and information disclosure. Based on three surveys conducted in 2016 (n = 515), 2017 (n = 505) and 2018 (n = 543), this study finds mixed results regarding the relationships among security, assurance mechanisms, utilitarian benefits and information disclosure.

This study conducted three scenario-based surveys in the USA in 2016 (n = 515), 2017 (n = 505) and 2018 (n = 543).

This study finds mixed results of relationships among security, assurance mechanisms, utilitarian benefit and information disclosure.

With proliferation of MCC apps, the investigation of how users make privacy decision to disclose personal information to these apps is sparse. This study, for the first time, investigates whether the signals of assurance mechanism decrease users’ privacy concerns. This study also examines the interplay between security and privacy within information disclosure behavior. Finally, this study was conducted in 3 years to enhance the generalizability and robustness of findings.

Collaboration is often required for activities that are too complex or difficult to be dealt with by a single individual. Many situations requiring information-seeking activities also call for people to work together. Often the methods, systems, and tools that provide access to information assume that they are used only by individuals working on their tasks alone. This review points to the need to acknowledge the importance of collaboration in information-seeking processes, to study models, and to develop systems that are specifically designed to enable collaborative information seeking (CIS) tasks. This chapter reviews the literature from various domains including library and information science, human–computer interaction, collaborative systems, and information retrieval. Focus of the review is on the extent to which people work together on information seeking tasks and the systems and tools that are available for them to be successful. Since CIS occurs in the broader context of collaboration in general, a review of literature about collaborations is first undertaken to define it and place it into context with related terms such as cooperation and communication. A more focused review of research follows relating CIS to systems that have attempted to support such interactions. Included are identification and synthesis of a number of core issues in the field and how best to evaluate systems and collaborative tools. Key lessons learned from the review are summarized, and gaps in the literature identified to spur future research and study.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand factors that influence users’ acceptance of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) collaboration tools in organizational settings.

This paper develops a research model based on the Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM). Using data collected from a field study of Google Docs, the research model and related hypotheses are tested by structural equation modeling.

Users’ confirmation with expectations positively affect their perceived usefulness and satisfaction level; Users’ perceived usefulness and satisfaction positively affect their intention to continue using such collaboration tools. Users’ prior experience with such tools and their IT skills have a moderating effect on the relationships among confirmation, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and continuance intention.

This study identifies the theoretical foundations of user acceptance of SaaS collaboration tools in the context of mandatory adoption. This empirical study, based on an established theoretical foundation, will help the research community to gain a deeper understanding of user acceptance of cloud computing technologies, in particular, SaaS collaboration tools.

The findings of this study can provide vendors and implementing organizations with useful strategies and tactics to enhance users’ acceptance of SaaS collaboration tools.

With the increasing popularity of cloud computing technologies, there have been ongoing concerns about the effectiveness of SaaS collaboration tools in organizational settings. This study is one of the first empirical research to examine the factors influencing users’ acceptance of SaaS collaboration tools.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether social networking site (SNS) communities benefit from collective knowledge and collaboration, which represent a portfolio of knowledge transfer on SNSs.

A survey was conducted on a large scale through an online questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze data collected from 674 experienced SNS users.

The results indicate that all three exogenous variables, presented as user characteristics and integrated into SNS user characteristics, were positively related to the knowledge transfer portfolio, namely, to collective knowledge and collaboration, and these variables had significant moderating effects on SNS users’ community cohesiveness. Early SNS adoption was more likely than late SNS adoption to moderate the relationship between collective knowledge and community cohesiveness and that between collective collaboration and community cohesiveness.

The findings provide useful insights for SNS operators to enhance the process of collaborative knowledge transfer. They may also be used to obtain better insights into important factors that require closer attention during SNS use.

The present study provides a systematic analysis of SNS use by considering a new research model and investigating the effects of SNS-based knowledge transfer on user outcomes based on three major characteristics of SNS users. The results are expected to provide a major foundation for further SNS research and a better understanding of the relationships between SNS user characteristics, knowledge transfer, and community cohesiveness.

This paper aims to elucidate the collaborative mechanism of knowledge collaboration in online communities. The effects of participant communication behaviors enabling knowledge collaboration, such as public discussion, private messaging and registration, are comprehensively investigated in relation to individual and group performances.

Eight communication categories of participants are defined according to their communication behaviors, and the average number of knowledge contributions at the individual level and the helpfulness toward collaboration efficiency at the group level are compared across the participant categories.

The results show that simultaneous participation in both task-oriented public discussion and relationship-oriented private messaging has a synergistic effect in promoting individual knowledge sharing, and that additional registration – disclosing one’s identity – significantly enhances efficiency in group collaboration. The role of public discussion appears to be as significant as that of private messaging with regard to online knowledge collaboration.

First, encouraging members to participate in both task-oriented discussion and casual personal communication is important for eliciting more knowledge contributions. Second, although social capital based on one-to-one private messaging has attracted much attention with respect to knowledge sharing, many-to-many public discussions that more deeply and broadly influence knowledge conversion should be more highly emphasized. Third, the perceptions of shared value and reputation based on registration also need to be cultivated to increase collaboration efficiency.

In contrast to most previous research that focused on only one type of communication, this study offers a big-picture view of the relationship between communication and online knowledge collaboration by adopting a comprehensive approach to participant communication behavior. A systematic classification of communication behaviors enables this work to illuminate the diverse effects of different communication types or styles on both individual- and group-level performances, thereby improving the understanding of the overall collaborative mechanism. This study thus provides fresh insights on effective management of online communities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the actual usage of online methods for collaboration with customers and firms’ innovation performance. Drawing on theories of knowledge flows and knowledge creation, this study analyses the results of customer collaboration in the online mode in comparison to the offline mode.

The data for the econometric analysis comes from managers of 102 so-called “gazelles”, knowledge-intensive service firms that were characterized by exceptionally stable growth rates in Sweden during 2010 and 2011.

This study confirms the significance of information and communication technology (ICT)-supported collaboration with customers for a firm’s innovation performance. Interacting with customers using online methods has a positive effect on companies’ innovation output. Besides, knowledge-intensive service companies demonstrate more extensive though less intensive use of online channels for collaborating with customers compared to offline methods.

The data for this study has typical limitations resulting from the collection method of web-surveying. Future research should refine the findings of this study using various measures of firms’ innovation performance.

Firms should be more receptive towards online methods of collaboration with customers because using such strategy can increase their probability to introduce service innovations. The insights from this study are especially valuable for companies in knowledge-intensive service industries because the sample consist of companies that can be regarded as successful cases.

This study is one of the first that addresses the issue of the impact of collaborative technologies on innovation performance. The sample of steady-growing gazelle companies adds value to the results.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the gap that currently exists between enterprise and consumer‐focused mashup tools in terms of personalized, trusted collaboration. The authors describe how Sqwelch, a semantically enabled mashup maker, addresses this gap during the design of mashups and in their execution.

Sqwelch enables the composition of mashups based on the concept of trust explicitly specified by users through a visual interface. Taxonomies are used to enable lightweight mediation of payloads delivered through a publish/subscribe mechanism.

The authors demonstrate the use of Sqwelch as a proof of concept in the remote delivery of healthcare, and how Sqwelch has been used to address areas of trust and collaboration in the delivery of telehealth services.

Integrating trust and collaboration across the boundaries of enterprises is required where sensitive data are transferred across those boundaries in the expectation of the delivery of a service. Across these boundaries, the authors find variations in users' skills, their expectations, and their responsibilities. The prototype described here enables users to discover, compose, share and collaborate in the day‐to‐day use of systems that match personalized requirements.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of collaboration with lead users (users that experience needs unknown to the public and therefore can innovate by finding solutions to those needs) and product experts (external new product development collaborators who have a commercial interest in the development of a new product) on the clockspeed of the development of new products and to determine which of the two has a higher impact.

Survey data were collected from 421 European manufacturers, and analysed using hierarchical regression analyses.

Both lead users and product experts were found to have a positive and statistically significant impact on new product development speed. Also, collaboration with lead users will lead to greater new product development speed than with product experts.

When knowledgeable individuals are involved in the new product development process as lead users, they have a better impact on new product development speed than when they are involved as product experts. This is a single informant study that makes use of perceptual measures. Although several steps have been taken to minimise any risk of systematic bias, its potential effect cannot be eliminated.

The results have two main implications for manufacturers. First, collaboration with lead users and product experts during the new product development process will help to improve the speed of development, and hence the speed to market. Second, collaboration with lead users will have a greater impact, particularly when undertaken informally, as formal integration may lead to a weakening of lead users' innovative abilities.

The paper contributes to the growing literature, which explores how innovators found outside an organisation can be used to enhance the innovative ability of that organisation. The value of this work is that it identifies and empirically compares the impact of lead users and product experts on new product development speed.