New study on how social media can foster the development of radical innovations

With the advent of digital technologies such as social media, the opportunities to use external knowledge for a company's open innovation activities have expanded significantly. A new study by Prof. Dr. Steffen Strese with Dr. Denise Fischer, Dr. Jacqueline Prasuhn and Prof. Dr. Malte Brettel from RWTH Aachen University, which has been recently published in the International Journal of Innovation Management, reveals that firms who are able to leverage social media tools innovate more radically. This finding holds especially true if technology acceptance is well pronounced in the organization. his finding is especially true when technology acceptance is well-developed within the company. However, the empirical analyses also show that frequent users of social media may be more susceptible to the systemic challenges of social media (e.g., echo chambers), which in turn dampens the ability to innovate radically. You can access the study here.

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