The Wisdom of Consumer Crowds

„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 1

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 2

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 3

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 4

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 5

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 6

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 7

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 8

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 9

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 10

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 11

swarms Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management swarms Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management 12

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 13

mobs Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management mobs Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management 14

mobs Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management mobs Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management 15

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 16

crowds Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management crowds Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management 17

crowds Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management crowds Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management 18

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 19

virtual space design by hives Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management film productions by hives Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management 20

product design by hives Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management product design by hives Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management 21

Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management Andrea Hemetsberger Benjamin Grycams "Beck's Experience". Foto: Lars Cramer Innsbruck University School of Management 22

Andrea Hemetsberger Codename: Alexis Innsbruck University School of Management software production by hives Andrea Hemetsberger Innsbruck University School of Management 23

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 24

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 25

The Wisdom of Consumer Crowds

by Wikonsumer Research on Dec 26, 2009

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