Investigating the Effect of Motives, Social Capital, and Human Capital on Commercialization of Self-Developed Products by User Innovators: A Study of a Crowdfunding Platform

Hooman Ahvari (), Amir Ekhlassi () and Joe McDonagh ()
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Hooman Ahvari: University of Tehran, Alborz Campus, Department of Business Administration, Iran
Amir Ekhlassi: ��Visiting Lecturer, ESB Business School, Reutlingen University, Germany
Joe McDonagh: ��University of Dublin, Trinity College, Trinity Business School, Ireland

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), 2023, vol. 20, issue 01, 1-22

Abstract: User innovators follow multiple diffusion and adoption pathways for their self-developed innovations. Users may choose to commercialize their self-developed products on the marketplace by becoming entrepreneurs. Few studies exist that focus on understanding personal and interpersonal factors that affect some user innovators’ entrepreneurial decision-making. Hence, this paper focuses on how user innovators make key decisions relating to opportunity recognition and evaluation and when opportunity evaluation leads to subsequent entrepreneurial action in the entrepreneurial process. We conducted an exploratory study using a multi-grounded theory methodology as the user entrepreneurship phenomenon embodies complex social processes. We collected data through the netnography approach that targeted 18 entrepreneurs with potentially relevant differences through crowdfunding platforms. We integrated self-determination, human capital, and social capital theory to address the phenomena under study. This study’s significant findings posit that users’ motives are dissatisfaction with existing goods, interest in innovation, altruism, social recognition, desire for independence, and economic benefits. Besides, use-related experience, product-related knowledge, product diffusion, and iterative feedback positively impact innovative users’ entrepreneurial decision-making.

Keywords: User innovation; user entrepreneurship; crowdfunding platform; self-determination theory; social capital; human capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1142/S0219877022500365

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