A Comparative Study of Online User Communities Involvement In Product Innovation and Development

The literature lacks a conceptual understanding on how different types of online user communities can influence the product innovation and development. Therefore, this research attempts to understand this phenomenon by re-classifying the current online user communities from the perspective of product innovation and development and has resulted in five different models of user communities. We compare and discuss of the five models. Lastly, we will further discuss the deficiencies of the User Collaboration Innovation Communities, theoretically and practically, to suggest the feasibility of the research direction in the future.