WWW/Internet - Portal do Software Público Brasileiro

IADIS International Conference WWW/Internet 2010THE ROLE OF WEB-BASED COLLABORATIVE SYSTEMSIN SUPPORTING FIRM'S CREATIVITYClaudia Dossena and Alberto FrancesconiUniversity of Pavia – Faculty of Economics – Business Research DepartmentVia S. Felice 7, Pavia – ITALYABSTRACTThe diffusion of Web Communities significantly increases opportunities for communications and social relations, thusaffecting firm’s creativity potential. We aim at finding out how WCs, as collaborative systems, can support the firm’screative processes. Our findings, based on an explorative case-study, emphasize the role of a wide and cohesive WC thathas both peculiarities of networks for knowledge exploitation and exploration. Reflections on main assets and capabilitiesinvolved to manage the WC as well as suggestions for future research are presented.KEYWORDSWeb community, Collaborative systems, Creativity, Networks.1. INTRODUCTIONIn contemporary competitive context it is commonly recognized the importance of effective firm’s creativeprocesses, based on the generation and the exploitation, respectively, of both new and already existingknowledge.IT plays a fundamental role in supporting creativity both at individual and collective level, e.g. byencouraging cooperation and supporting the exchange of knowledge. Recently, the diffusion of social mediaand, in particular, of Web Communities (WCs), has become an important way to share interests, problemsand experiences, thus supporting creativity through social relations.Our WC analysis is based on important concepts used in network and inter-organizational learningliterature. In particular, our findings, based on a successful case (Roland DG Mid Europe), emphasize therole of a wide and cohesive WC to support firm’s creativity where the WC has both peculiarities of networksfor knowledge exploitation and exploration. In order to give some suggestions for managerial practice, mainassets and capabilities involved are highlighted too.2. WEB COMMUNITIES AS NETWORKSResearch on creativity focused primarily on creativity as an individual trait (see Barron & Harrington 1981for a review). More recently, perspectives on creativity focused more on how contextual factors can affectindividual creativity, such as the development of appropriate incentive systems, the presence of slackresources, the development of a work environment that promotes risk-taking and autonomous decisionmaking (Perry-Smith & Shalley, 2003; Woodman et al. 1993; Amabile et al. 1996; Tierney et al. 1999). Inseveral cases these factors have unequivocally a social dimension: creativity is, at least in part, a socialprocess (Amabile, 1988; Woodman et al. 1993). There are also other social factors directly linked toindividual creativity: interpersonal communication and social interaction levels (Amabile 1988, Woodman etal. 1993). Communication and exchanges of ideas increase creativity (Amabile, 1996; Kanter, 1988;Woodman et al. 1993). Similarly, also the contact among different individuals can increase firm’s creativity.This difference is linked to different background, specialization areas, roles inside a firm (Amabile et al.293