Forking, leadership control and social capital in open innovation

Open innovation, by sponsoring communities of knowledge contributors, has attracted the attention of business firms as it can help generate diverse ideas to innovate new products. This paper draws attention to forking within communities, whereby sub-groups form and pursue agendas different from the overall community´s goals. While forking can sometimes be beneficial, it can also harm the community by disrupting its integrity and in turn, threaten the interests of the sponsoring firm. It is argued the increasing leadership control can help reduce the likelihood of forking up to a certain point, beyond which it might again increase forking possibility. Increasing social capital in the community can help reduce the likelihood of forking for a given level of leadership control. This paper offers propositions, and highlights the need for further research in this area.