Working Paper Series, Department of Industrial Economics & Strategy, Copenhagen Business School
No 03-1:
Consumers as Co-Developers Learning and innovation outside the firm
Lars Bo Jeppesen and Måns J. Molin
Abstract: This study describes a process in which a firm relies on
an external consumer community for innovation. While it has been recognized
that users may sometimes innovate, little is known about what commercial
firms can do to motivate and capture such innovations and their related
benefits. We contribute to the strategy literature by suggesting that
learning and innovation efforts from which a firm may benefit need not
necessarily be located within the organization, but may well reside in the
consumer environment. We also contribute to the existing theory on
“user-driven innovation” by showing what firms purposively can do to
generate consumer innovation efforts. An explorative case study shows that
consumer innovation can be structured, motivated, and partly organized by a
commercial firm that lays out the infrastructure for interactive learning
by consumers in a public online domain.
Keywords: Product Development, Consumer-to-Consumer Interaction, Learning, Consumer, Innovation, Community, User-toolkits.; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: L21; L23; O31; O32; (follow links to similar papers)
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