Reciprocity in innovation contest communities reciprocity vs. free-riding in an environment of competition

Innovation contest communities are virtual tools for corporations to integrate external knowledge into the innovation process. Built on both, the principle of competition as well as the advantages of a collaborative community, these contests constitute special interaction phenomena. Former community research has identified reciprocity as a major motive for collaboration. By applying a social network analysis, the study explores the reciprocal and free-riding behavior of participants in an innovation contest community and potential influences on contest outcome variables like the quality and quantity of participants´ ideas. The results show that reciprocity is a substantial element for the interaction behavior of innovation contest community participants which should be stimulated by contest organizers.