Social media and innovation: A systematic literature review and future research directions

Abstract

Social media are privileged vehicles to generate rich data created with unprecedented multi-faceted insights to drive faster ideation and commercialisation of client-centric innovations. The essence of data generated through social media is rooted in the connections and relationships it enables between firms and their stakeholders, and represents one of the greatest assets for data-driven innovation. As most of the firms are still experiencing and trailblazing in this matter, the current challenge is therefore to learn how to benefit from social media's potential for innovation purposes. In the last decade, research interest has increased towards understanding social media – innovation interactions. The reliance on the wisdom of the crowd in driving major business decisions and shaping society's way of life is now well acknowledged in academic and business literature. Social media is increasingly used as a tool to manage knowledge flows within and across organisation boundaries in the process of innovation. Yet, conceptualisation of social media and innovation interaction and a systematic review of how far the field has come remains providential. Therefore, through a systematic literature review we aim to identify research trends and gaps in the field, conceptualise current paradigmatic views and therein provide clear propositions to guide future research. Based on a systematic review, 111 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and found in EBSCO Host® and Scopus® databases are descriptively analysed, with results synthesized across current research trends. Findings suggest social media is seen as enabler and driver of innovation, with behavioural and resource based perspectives being the most popular theoretical lens used by researchers. The originality of the paper is rooted in the comprehensive search and systematic review of studies in the discourse, which have not been unified to date. Implications for advancement of knowledge are embedded in the purposefully proposed theoretical, contextual and methodological perspectives, providing future research directions for exploring social media capability in innovation management.