Motivational Factors Affecting Participation and Contribution of Members in Two Different Swiss Innovation Communities

Different types of virtual innovation-related communities have emerged in recent years. These are increasingly being utilized by companies from different industries as a tool to efficiently source knowledge from diverse groups of individuals and thus to nourish internal innovations. Based on a case study research methodology this study investigated the impact 39 motivational factors have on the participation and contribution of members of two different innovation communities, i.e., an online Swiss innovation intermediary community (n = 48) and the off-line internal innovation community of a Swiss bank (n = 69). Results showed many similarities yet 16 significant differences between the perception of members of the two investigated innovation communities. For example, reward related items (monetary and non-monetary) showed to be top motivators for the intermediary community only. Items such as 'Webcam option', 'Chat function', 'Connection with other social network platforms', were perceived as low motivators by both communities. Derived from the findings, we discuss how the nature of the innovation community has an influence on the motivation and measures potentially leading to higher participation and contribution efficiency.