The role of online leadership in open collaborative innovation: Evidence from blockchain open source projects
Industrial Management & Data Systems
ISSN: 0263-5577
Article publication date: 8 October 2019
Issue publication date: 6 November 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles of online leadership in open collaborative innovation success by extending functional leadership theory in the context of open source projects.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses negative binomial regression models to empirically test the proposed hypotheses with samples of blockchain open source projects on GitHub.
Findings
The results indicate that task-oriented leadership behaviors in forms of technical contributions have little influence on open collaborative innovation success; relation-oriented leadership behaviors embedded in internal social capital and external social capital contribute to open collaborative innovation success prominently. Furthermore, the joint effects of technical contributions, internal social capital and community commitment with openness orientation are positively significant on open collaborative innovation success, respectively.
Practical implications
For leaders and participants of open collaborative innovation projects, they should attach importance to both leadership behaviors and the joint effects with openness orientation so as to make informed decisions.
Originality/value
This study offers a new fine-grained framework of open collaborative innovation success by investigating specific dimensions of task-oriented and relation-orientated leadership behaviors, as well as their joint effects with openness orientation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Shenzhen Special Fund for the Development of Strategic Emerging Industries (No. JCY20170818100156260) and CBEI Center, City University of Hong Kong Chengdu Research Institute (Project No. R-CBEI-006).
Citation
Mu, W., Bian, Y. and Zhao, J.L. (2019), "The role of online leadership in open collaborative innovation: Evidence from blockchain open source projects", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 119 No. 9, pp. 1969-1987. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-03-2019-0136
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited