Steal my idea! Organizational adoption of user innovations from a user innovation community: A case study of Dell IdeaStorm

Open innovation models suggest that an organization's end users can be a potentially beneficial source for new ideas and innovations. However, incorporating end users raises some interesting challenges regarding how to balance the decision making power between a firm and the user community. Using Diffusion of Innovation Theory, we propose hypotheses based on the perceived attributes of end user ideas and end user promotion efforts. Our findings suggest that the decision to adopt a user innovation was based on the ability of the firm to understand the technical requirements and respond to community concerns regarding the innovation. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.