Influence Of User Implicit Characteristics On Creative Output Of New Product In Virtual Community:The Cross-layer Moderating Effect Of Community Management

With the popularity and development of Internet technology,the virtual innovation community has become an important platform for firms and users to exchange ideas and an important channel for firms to explore high-quality ideas.Many scholars have explored user implicit characteristics to identify user behaviors.However,user behavior is also affected by the user's psychology,so it is also necessary to explore its implicit characteristics.But how to identify user implicit characteristics? Which implicit characteristics of leading users can promote new product creative output? How do firms manage virtual innovation communities? And the evolution of the user's implicit characteristics and its dynamic relationship between creative output and implicit characteristics remains to be further studied.This paper comprehensively uses cognitive load theory,prosocial behavior theory,multilevel theory and group dynamic theory to explore the relationship between implicit characteristics of users(creativity,reciprocity,emotional orientation and community recognition)and new product creative output(quantity and quality),between community management at the organizational level(User autonomy,privacy concerns)and new product creative output(quantity and quality),crosslayer moderation of community management,and the evolution of users at different levels and their dynamic relationship with new product creative output.What's more,using 2000 user samples and 80 community manager questionnaire data from 20 firm-hosted virtual innovation communities to conduct empirical tests by multi-level regression analysis and multiple regression analysis.The main findings are as follows:(1)Creativity,reciprocity and emotional orientation in the implicit characteristics of users have a significant positive impact on the quantity and quality of new product creative output;while user community recognition only has a significant positive impact on the quality of new product creative output,but has no significant impact on the quantity of new product creative outputs.(2)User autonomy at the community management level have a significant positive impact on quality of new product creative,but has no significant impact on the quantity of new product creative outputs;and privacy concerns have no significant impact on the quantity and quality of new product creative output.(3)User autonomy moderates the relationship between user implicit characteristics and the new product creative outputs.The higher user autonomy is,the stronger the relationship between user creativity and new product creative outputs is;the stronger the relationship between user emotion orientation and new product creative outputs;but no obvious change between user reciprocity and new product creative output of quantity,the weakness the relationship between user reciprocity and new product creative output of quality.(4)Privacy concern moderates the relationship between user implicit characteristics and the new product creative outputs.The higher privacy concern is,the stronger the relationship between user creativity and new product creative outputs of quantity is;but the weakness the relationship between user creativity and new product creative outputs of quality is;the weakness the relationship between user reciprocity and new product creative outputs;but no obvious change between user emotion orientation and new product creative output of quantity,the weakness the relationship between user emotion orientation and new product creative output of quality.(5)User implicit characteristics change as the user level changes.As the level of users increases,their creativity,reciprocity,emotion orientation,and community recognition level are also increasing.(6)The implicit characteristics of users who influence the creative output of new product vary depending on the level of users.In the low-level stage of users,user creativity,emotional orientation and community recognition are the main influencing factors of the quantity of new product creative output,and user creativity is the main influencing factor of new product creative output quality;in the middle-level stage of users,user creativity,emotional orientation and community recognition are the main influencing factors of the quantity and quality of new product creative output;in the high-level stage of users,user creativity and emotional orientation are the main influencing factors of the quantity of new product creative output,and users creativity and community recognition are the main factors influencing the quality of new product creative output.This study deepens the understanding of the relationship between virtual community management,user implicit characteristics and new product creative output,and it's very important for identifying leading users,helping firms to predict potential ideas,and improving new product development performance.