Evolving Virtual Communities into Innovation-Hub: The IBM Open-Collaboration Model

This paper aims to analyze the contribution of virtual communities in fostering innovation process in high-tech companies. Acting as centers of knowledge integration and value creation, communities operate as an innovation-hub that is an informal meta-organization, parallel to the traditional innovation labs. In the hub, employees communicate informally on the web and openly collaborate on innovation to strengthen the firm competitiveness. Despite its strategic role, relatively little is known about effectiveness of the hub in supporting innovation process, connectivity and dynamics of interaction. In order to gain insights to build a theory, we study in-depth the case of IBM Innovation-Hub and define same propositions. The research contributes to fill the theoretical gap related to the hub organizational model and to recognize the role of innovation-hub as a meta-organization. Finally, it provides insights for managers to build innovation strategies, maximizing the value created by the innovation-hub.