Trajectories of network change in online innovation communities

• Applicant: Dr. Lukas Vogelgsang
• Subject Area: Operations Management and Computer Science for Business Administration
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 530576408

The present proposal advances organizational theory concerning network dynamics and online innovation communities by investigating trajectories of network change. Specifically, we elucidate the pathway by which the innovation activities of participants in online communities lead to performance by stimulating change in the underlying network structure. Building on cases of ‘organizations’ on the platform GitHub, we first establish grounded accounts of trajectories of network change. Further, we take a structuration-based approach that focuses both the network agency embedded in innovation activities and the effects of structural network change on innovation performance. As such, we break new grounds by connecting both causes and effects of network change in online communities into an integrated theory of network dynamics.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Martin Högl