Study on the Influence of User Network Location on Crowdsourcing Innovation Performance—A Case Study of Lego Ideas

众包创新社区作为互联网技术推动企业创新的重要成果，参与用户在社区中进行互动、合作及竞争，有效促进了社区内信息与知识的流动。从社会网络视角出发探索众包创新社区用户不同网络位置对创新绩效的影响，对推动众包创新社区持续发展具有重要意义。本文基于社会网络理论，以乐高创意平台为实证对象，探究了用户网络位置对其创新绩效的影响。经实证研究发现，用户的点度中心度及中间中心度与众包创新绩效呈倒U型关系，而用户的接近中心度与众包创新绩效呈U型关系。本研究对提升众包创新社区用户创新绩效具有一定的价值，为引导规范社区参与用户创新行为具有重要意义。Crowdsourcing innovation community as an essential result of the Internet technology to promote enterprise innovation, participating users interact, cooperate and compete in the community, which effectively promotes the flow of information and knowledge in the community. It is of great significance to explore the influence of different network positions of crowdsourcing innovation community users on innovation performance from the perspective of social network to promote the sustainable development of crowdsourcing innovation community. On the basis of social network theory, this paper takes LEGO Creative Platform as an empirical object and explores the influence of users’ network position on their innovation performance. The empirical study found that users’ point centrality and middle centrality have an inverted U-shaped relationship with crowdsourcing innovation performance, while users’ proximity centrality has a U-shaped relationship with crowdsourcing innovation performance. This study has a certain worth to enhance the innovation performance of users in crowdsourcing innovation community, and is of great significance to guide and regulate the innovation behaviour of users involved in the community.