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Community Based Innovation

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Submitted By JMascareno
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Electron Commerce Res (2006) 6: 57–73 DOI: 10.1007/s10660-006-5988-7

Community based innovation: How to integrate members of virtual communities into new product development
Johann Fuller · Michael Bartl · Holger Ernst · ¨ Hans Muhlbacher ¨

C

Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006

Abstract Online consumer groups represent a large pool of product know-how. Hence, they seem to be a promising source of innovation. At present, except for open source software, little is known about how to utilize this know-how for new product development. In this article we explore if and how members of virtual communities can be integrated into new product development. We explain how to identify and access online communities and how to interact with its members in order to get valuable input for new product development. This approach we term “Community Based Innovation.” The Audi case illustrates the applicability of the method and underscores the innovative capability of consumers encountered in virtual communities. Keywords Online communities . User innovations . New product development . Virtual customer integration Customers’ wants and their acquired knowledge through the actual use of products make them an essential external resource for new product development (NPD) [12, 13, 37, 47, 65, 57, 71]. Some customers are not only knowledgeable but also able to develop their own new products [22, 50, 58, 67, 69]. Such innovative customers can be found in online communities
J. F¨ ller u University of Innsbruck, Department of Value-Process Management, Marketing Group, Universit¨ tsstr. 15, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria a e-mail: johann.fueller@hyve.de M. Bartl Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management (WHU), Chair for Technology and Innovation Management e-mail: mbartl@whu.edu H. Ernst Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management (WHU), Head of the Chair for Technology and

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