Lean on Diffusion Theory to Make Ideas-communities Fly – the Case of Datev

Internal ideas communities are becoming important instruments for companies, as they are virtual places where employees solve organizational issues, develop new products, services, and business opportunities. The engagement in such communities is voluntary and users are asked to invest their expertise, creativity, and their time to develop ideas. This makes it important to continuously acquire new members and to motivate the community to generate valuable content. However, recent literature does not provide adequate approaches for implementing ideas communities in a structured way. Thus, we conducted a single-case study analysing the implementation of DATEV’s ideas community, which is considered by DATEV as a successfully implemented community. We found that the implementation approach of DATEV has similarities with the diffusion theory by Leonard-Barton. Leonard-Barton’s theory consists of three key principles for implementing innovations in organizations: User Involvement, Sponsors and Champions, Mutual Adaptation of Organization and Technology. Based on the analysis of the DATEV approach by applying the theory by Leonard-Barton, we enrich existing literature about community building and management approaches. Furthermore, we present measures for implementing virtual communities using the example of an internal ideas community.