The document discusses a quote from Krishnamurthy from 2003 stating that the Internet has fundamentally altered the world by changing how people and societies interact globally through digital technologies and online networks.

1. „The Internet has fundamentally altered
the world.“ Krishnamurthy, 2003
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
A fine picture of the Internet
Dark blue: net, ca, us
Green: com, org
Red: mil, gov, edu
Yellow: jp, cn, tw, au, de
Magenta: uk, it, pl, fr
Gold: br, kr, nl
White: unknown
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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2. Robert V. Kozinets
Schulich School of Business
York University
The Wisdom of Consumer Crowds
Collective Innovation in the Age Andrea Hemetsberger
School of Management
of Networked Marketing Innsbruck University
Hope J. Schau
Eller College of Management
The University of Arizona
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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3. Yes You. You Control the Information Age.
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
etribes
• Global Consumers have extended themselves through Computer-Mediated
Communication
– 84% use newsgroup for info on hobbies or personal interests
– 52% have contributed content online
– 40% use chat
– 6% maintain blogs
(USA figures)
• Interacting in Online Communities has become second nature
– “virtual” or “real”
• Average age of online community contributor is 33
g g y
• Pareto no longer rules
– Content creation pyramid
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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4. content creation pyramid
(Bradley Horowitz)
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
„Business and society need categories and
procedures to guide the powerful phenomenon
of collective consumer innovation.“
Kozinets, Hemetsberger & Schau, 2008
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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5. varieties of online community creativity
• consumers are writing and sharing their texts,
• distributing their various podcasts and vlogs,
• programming and d b i software t th
i d debugging ft together,
• posting photographs (e.g., flickr)
• commenting and tagging on photos, blogs, vlogs,
• creating news, ads
• parodies, and satire
• refine, alter, and design products
• create their own brands
• set up their own online businesses
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
some key texts
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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6. some key texts
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
consumer creativity
• Dimly understood concept (Moreau and Dahl 2005)
• Innovative consumer behavior is actually an integral part in
the daily life of every consumer, not a rare activity.
• General neglect of the collaborative side of creative
consumer cultures and its implications for marketing (e.g.,
Burroughs and Mick 2004)
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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7. consumer creativity
• Creativity is generally defined as the production of novel,
usefull ideas or problem solutions. It refers to both the process
sef sol tions
of idea generation or problem solving and the actual idea or
solution (Amabile, 1983; Sternberg, 1988a; Weisberg, 1988,
Amabile, 2005)
• The créateur is a person who makes, designs, and/or invents
things
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
consumer creativity
Individual creativity:
Mozart claimed that pleasant moods were most conducive to his
creativity: “When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely
alone, and of good cheer—say, traveling in a carriage, or walking
after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is
on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly”
(Vernon, 1970: 55)
The concept of flow (Czikszentmihaly), total immersion
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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8. consumer creativity
Individual creativity:
Compare Margaret Wertheim’s (1999) thoughts on the state of
our psyche on the Internet:
p y
“by creating a space that follows the virtual laws of thought rather
the concrete laws of matter, cyberspace provides a cosmos
where the psyche can once again live and breathe.”
Caught in our fragmented, postmodern self that tries to resist
modernist norms and traditions we are in constant search for a
renewed, re unified
renewed re-unified, and authentic self. Cyberspace becomes the
self
sacred place for contemplation and self-construction, and the
space where our digitalized minds freed from our corporeal
reality, become creative.
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
consumer creativity
• Online communities for new product development (Prahalad
and Ramaswamy 2004; von Hippel 2005)
• In recent research, Hargadon and Bechky (2006) emphasize
a key point: collective creativity takes on a quality distinct
from individual creativity
• The rise of particular kinds of online creativity reflects an
important q
p qualitative shift in the nature of the creative pprocess
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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9. consumer creativity
Collective creativity:
Occurs when social interaction triggers new interpretations and
discoveries that consumers thinking alone could not have been
generated (Hargadon and Bechky, 2006)
Collective creativity as a process of variation (idea creation) and
selection (idea usefulness) in evolutionary theory
The network effect boosts variation, interactivity provides an
abundance of selection mechanisms (reviews, recommendations,
votings, et cetera)
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
objective of presentation
• Assertion: the creativity and productivity of consumers online is
exceptional and is beginning to offer major managerial challenges
and opportunities that deserve further theorization
• Contribution: Begin to offer frameworks for understanding the
varieties of online consumer creativity
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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10. dimensions of online community creation
• Collective Innovation Orientation:
some of the communities and teams tend to be goal focused
whereas in other communities, innovation is a byproduct of their
collective online activities and interests.
• Collective Innovation Concentration:
assesses the concentration of innovative contribution among the
community. In some communities, only a few individual
consumers contribute the vast majority of the work required to
realize an innovative accomplishment. In other communities, the
contribution is spread among a large number of contributors.
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
types of creative consumer behavior
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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11. swarms
“Swarms” is th moniker we give t th amassed collections of
“S ” i the ik i to the d ll ti f
often-multitudinous yet individually small individual contributions that
occur as a part of more natural or free-flowing cultural or communal
practices. These types of communities and their contributions are
most strongly associated with activity in the Web 2.0 world.
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
swarms
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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12. swarms
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
swarms
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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13. swarms
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
mobs
“Mobs” h
“M b ” have a high concentration of innovation contribution, b t
hi h t ti fi ti t ib ti but
these contributions are oriented to a communo-ludic spirit of
communal play and lifestyle exchange. Mobs are often based
around the contributions of specialists who speak to relatively
homogenous affinity or interest groups.
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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14. mobs
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
mobs
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Innsbruck University School of Management
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15. mobs
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
mobs
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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16. mobs
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
crowds
This is the term we give to large, organized g p who g
g g , g groups gather or are
gathered together specifically to plan, manage, and/or complete
particular tractable and well defined projects. What differentiates
“Crowds” is the generally lower concentration of collective
innovation—it is dispersed among a number of contributors—and
their intentional collaboration in a particular project.
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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17. crowds
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
crowds
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Innsbruck University School of Management
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18. crowds
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
crowds
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Innsbruck University School of Management
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19. crowds
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
hives
At the furthest level of creativity contribution are consumers who
y
gather into organized semi-permanent collectives, which we term
“Hives”. These “consumers” are industrious, diligent, and regular, and
would include groups such as ongoing Open Source software
communities, local Star Trek episode production groups, vlog and
podcast production teams, and so on.
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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20. virtual space design by hives
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
film productions by hives
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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21. product design by hives
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
product design by hives
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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22. Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
Andrea Hemetsberger
Benjamin Grycams "Beck's Experience". Foto: Lars Cramer Innsbruck University School of Management
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23. Andrea Hemetsberger
Codename: Alexis Innsbruck University School of Management
software production by hives
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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24. Conclusion
What are the implications of these altered understandings for our theories of
consumers, communities, and creativity?
– Our framework considers different forms of consumer creativity which
imply different ways to address them
– Individual creativity versus collaborative creativity
– Individualistic, content-oriented, highly collaborative and innovative
– Companies’ role ?
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
Implications
Different ways of thinking:
– Re-aesthetization and re-enchantment of creative, voluntary “work”
– Forms and amount of relationships are open
– Rules are framing adequate social action: helping and sharing, collective
reflection (reviews, critique, recommendations), and reinforcing behavior
Different enabling technologies for mobs, sources, hives, and sources:
– Toolkits for ind. contributions, immersive technology, visibility, support,
opportunities for contribution, information sharing with individual
consumers
– Enabling technology (Web 2 0) social platforms interactivity is key
2.0), platforms, key,
contributing instead of ‘managing’
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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25. Thank you for your attention!
Questions and comments are very welcome
Kozinets, Robert, Andrea Hemetsberger and Hope Jensen Schau (2008), “The
Wisdom of Consumer Crowds: Collective Innovation in the Age of Networked
Marketing,” Journal of Macromarketing, Vol. 28 (4), 339-354.
Andrea Hemetsberger
Innsbruck University School of Management
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