Idea readability and complexity in online user innovation communities: Effects on implementation and advocacy

Despite the importance of online user innovation communities (OUICs) as venues for capturing novel ideas for innovation and new product development, little research has examined how idea characteristics, such as readability and complexity, interplay with firms’ implementation decisions and the advocacy of other community members. Drawing on stakeholder engagement theory and leveraging data from 11,985 ideas collected and 657 ideas implemented, this study investigates how user idea-contribution behaviors in OUICs influence performance. The findings indicate that idea complexity is negatively associated with both implementation and advocacy, whereas idea length is negatively associated only with implementation. Additional moderating analyses show that discussion of ideas can mitigate the negative effect of textual complexity. Taken together, these results underscore the importance of idea readability and offer direct implications for firms that manage and promote OUICs. • Provides insights into online user innovation communities (OUICs) as mechanisms for innovation. • Examines how idea characteristics interplay with idea implementation and advocacy. • Offers insights into how user-contributed ideas in OUICs influence performance. • The complexity of ideas is negatively associated with both idea implementation and advocacy. • Discussing the ideas can mitigate the negative effect of complex texts.