Today open source philosophy points the way to innovations arising from the adoption of new models for distributing know-how and exploiting intellectual capital. Growing interest in knowledge management has led to increased attention being paid to social network analysis as a tool for mapping the structure and nature of shared information. However, despite the knowledge-intensive nature of resource-based view (RBV), social network analyses of the R&D function remain relatively rare. This paper discusses the role of networks in the development, exchange and dissemination of knowledge exploitable by companies in search of innovation. An empirical study using social network analysis is presented to give evidence to theoretical models. This takes into account both static and dynamic network variables, and debates motivational drivers behind members' commitment to social networking. The implications for business world are clear: companies have to rethink traditional approach to innovation, revising their model to knowledge creation, and learn to wisely leverage networked intellectual capital and spare time commoditization.

1. VIRTUAL SOCIAL NETWORKS
AND OPEN INNOVATION/
KNOWLEDGE SHARING:
QUESTIONING THE RBV
Tesi di laurea specialistica di Caccamo Gianluca
Matricola 1184746
Milano, 26 Marzo 2009
“To find something comparable, you have to go back 500 years to the
printing press and the birth of mass media...” Rupert Murdoch

2.  RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
 THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS
 LITERATURE REVIEW
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 DATA
 CONCLUSIONS

3. RESEARCH CHALLANGE: QUESTIONING THE RESOURCE-BASED VIEW

4. DECLARED
OBJECTIVE:
Find out and
examine any
existing relation
among static
elements
DECLARED
OBJECTIVE:
Find out and
examine any
existing relation
among static
elements
FOUNDATIONS OF VIRTUAL SOCIAL NETWORKS

5. NETWORKED KNOWLEDGE AND INNOVATION GENERATION
DECLARED
OBJECTIVE:
Search of structural
conditions that lead
to innovation
DECLARED
OBJECTIVE:
Search of structural
conditions that lead
to innovation

6. “We have a partner in this business and that partner is the community of
users”
eBay CEO, Meg Whitman.
EMERGING MODEL
CURRENT MODEL
ORIGINAL MODEL

7. 7
• If we create the best ideas in the
industry, we will win.
• We have to protect and isolate
our resources (RBV)
• Not all the smart people work for
us. We need to work with smart
people inside and outside the
company.
• Self-organizing free agents
• The smart people in our
field work for us .
• Principal-agent relationship
• If we make the best use of internal
and external ideas, we will win.
• The world is our R&D department”
Chesborough 2003
Closed attitude Open attitude
• Knowledge and innovation
management is confined within firm’s
boundaries
• The central domain is the social
network: holistic integration of social
network and knowledge
management

9. RECURSIVE PROCESS

10. SAMPLE COMPOSITION
DISTORTED SAMPLE

11. MOTIVATION TO SOCIAL NETWORKING
Supporting empirics : Forrester’s 2007
research
Our empirics
THE SOCIOLOGICAL AND COMMUNICATIONAL ASPECTS ARE EVIDENT

12. TIME DEDICATED TO SOCIAL NETWORKING
RESULTS
• INDIVIDUAL AVARAGE: 8+ HOURS/WEEK
• ENTIRE SAMPLE: 25.000 HOURS/YEAR
• CUMULATED FREQUENCY FIRST
THREE CLASSES: 85+ %
SPARE TIME COMMODITIZATION
Members’ expectations for their
time consumption

13. COMMUNITY RELEVANT CHARACTERISTIC AND ROLES DISTRIBUTION
• 70+ % USERS (MODE FOR FOUR AGE CLASSES)
RESULTS
• ADOPTION OF GNU LICENSES: UNCERTAINTY PREVAILS
• BANDWAGON FAD: “I WANT TO BE WHERE EVERYBODY IS”
• LACK OF ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE ON GNU LICENSING SYSTEM

14. SOCIAL NETWORK STRUCTURE
THE “FRIEND WHEEL”
• Facebook’s application reproducing
the structure of nodes and ties.
• Facebook surveyed individuals
( 74% of sample)
• The cirlce: first degree ties
RESULT
• International reach
• 3 areas of redundacy, reflecting
distinct real-life social circles
• Presence of structural holes
FAVOURABLE CONDITIONS TO COME ACROSS HETEROGENOUS
KNOWLEDGE AND SPUR INNOVATIVE CONTENT

15. GENERATION OF PROSUMED INNOVATIVE CONTENT
COMMUNITIES ARE “MARKET OF CONVERSATIONS” AND INNOVATIVE IDEAS
RESULTS
• Easy of interaction
•Bottom-up sharing system
• Freedom of expression
• Ideas mixing and re-
combining
• Absence of any spatial or
time limit

16. Results have important implications for managerial practice and further
research. The following table outlines a few avenues.
ManagerialPractice
Further
Research
• Companies with an open approach have the best chance of harnessing an
enormous wealth of free talent available outside firm’s boundaries. Success will lie in
choosing the right parameters of openness.
• Platforms for participation will only remain viable if all stakeholders are adequately
compensated for their contributions – companies are warned, they can’t expect to
free riding forever.
• The way we manage intellectual property affects everything we have discussed.
The actual intellectual property regime is radically out with modern technological,
economic and social realities and needs to be integrally redifined.
• Privacy of users is another important issue that deserves extensive research.
Paper openly consultable in accordance with the principles of openness discussed