Fostering customer creativity in virtual innovation communities: The impact of inclusive climates and customer engagement

Abstract

Virtual innovation communities have become important settings for customer participation in innovation, yet the process through which inclusive community climates foster customer creativity remains insufficiently understood. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study examines how two dimensions of inclusive climate, integration of differences and inclusion in decision-making, relate to customer creativity through three facets of customer engagement: vigor, dedication, and absorption. Survey data were collected from 420 customers in virtual innovation communities and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results show that both integration of differences and inclusion in decision-making are positively associated with vigor, dedication, and absorption, which in turn are positively related to customer creativity. The mediation results indicate that customer engagement helps explain how inclusive climate is linked to customer creativity, with different engagement facets playing distinct roles in this process. The pattern of results also suggests that integration of differences and inclusion in decision-making provide partly different engagement-based routes to customer creativity. This study extends inclusive climate research to virtual innovation communities and clarifies how inclusive community environments support customer creativity through engagement-based resource investment.