MKTG 556 | Session 5 | Lower Connectivity is Better

MKTG 556 | Session 5 | Lower Connectivity is Better: The Effects of Network Structure on Redundancy of Ideas and Customer Innovativeness in Interdependent Ideation Tasks - 2016 ANDREW T. STEPHEN, PETER PAL ZUBCSEK, and JACOB GOLDENBERG Introduction: The authors explore the marketing approach of interdependent ideation, where companies encourage customers to generate ideas on online platforms that showcase others' contributions. They contend that while connectivity promotes inspiration, the structure of the network, especially clustering among contributors, diminishes innovativeness by creating redundancy. Through five experiments, they show that lower connectivity boosts originality, and the negative impact of clustering is lessened when individuals do not depend on peers' ideas for inspiration.