  Innovators are creative people who can conjure the ground-breaking ideas that
represent the main engine of innovative organizations. Past research has
extensively investigated who innovators are and how they behave in work-related
activities. In this paper, we suggest that it is necessary to analyze how
innovators behave in other contexts, such as in informal communication spaces,
where knowledge is shared without formal structure, rules, and work
obligations. Drawing on communication and network theory, we analyze about
38,000 posts available in the intranet forum of a large multinational company.
From this, we explain how innovators differ from other employees in terms of
social network behavior and language characteristics. Through text mining, we
find that innovators write more, use a more complex language, introduce new
concepts/ideas, and use positive but factual-based language. Understanding how
innovators behave and communicate can support the decision-making processes of
managers who want to foster innovation.
