5. Discussion
5.1. Implications for academicians Existing research considers information disclosure to be a common behavior among user-innovators, especially those belonging to communities (Franke and Shah, 2003; von Hippel, 2005). The two characteristics significant for commercial success are community membership and information disclosure. However, this study indicates that these characteristics belong to only a specific group of innovators. Distinguished by their user community status and willingness to disclose information, user-innovators can be classified into three groups – social, revealing, and silent innovators. Significant differences were observed between groups in terms of demographic variables, characteristics, motives for product development, and motives for sharing information. Our classification provides new insights into user-innovators and new areas for research. First, we confirm that community membership and innovation disclosure are significant to the adoption of innovation. Our results indicate that creations from silent innovators have a comparatively low adoption rate. However, the reasons why that group is less prone to community belonging and disclosure are still unexplored. Solving that mystery will reveal how to transform silent innovators to social or revealing innovators. Second, findings suggest that scholars have not fully explored user-innovators’ motives for disclosing their innovations. Previous literature establishes that extrinsic (e.g., reputation, monetary reward) and intrinsic motives (e.g., enjoyment, curiosity) prompt their disclosure; however, revealing innovators may have other motives such as usefulness to others or because someone asked them to reveal innovations they had intended to conceal. Third, it is significant to explore further the receivers of innovation information. Existent research shows that userinnovators revealtheir creations within their communities. If users are companies,their communities may include suppliers, other users in their industries, or competitors. However, friends and neighbors may constitute a user community for revealing innovators and provide a rich vein of innovation to investigate.
