the wisdom of consumer crowds

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„The Internet has fundamentally altered

the world.“ Krishnamurthy, 2003

Andrea HemetsbergerInnsbruck University School of Management

A fine picture of the Internet

Dark blue: net, ca, usGreen: com, orgRed: mil, gov, eduYellow: jp, cn, tw, au, de Magenta: uk, it, pl, frGold: br, kr, nlWhite: unknown


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Robert V. KozinetsSchulich School of Business

York University

Andrea HemetsbergerSchool of Management

Innsbruck University

Hope J. SchauEller College of Management

The Wisdom of Consumer CrowdsCollective Innovation in the Age

of Networked Marketing


The University of Arizona


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Yes You. You Control the Information Age.


• Global Consumers have extended themselves through Computer-Mediated Communication

– 84% use newsgroup for info on hobbies or personal interests

etribes

– 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

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content creation pyramid


(Bradley Horowitz)

„Business and society need categories and

procedures to guide the powerful phenomenon

of collective consumer innovation.“Kozinets, Hemetsberger & Schau, 2008


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varieties of online community creativity

• consumers are writing and sharing their texts, • distributing their various podcasts and vlogs,

i d d b i ft t th • programming and debugging software 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


• create their own brands• set up their own online businesses

some key texts


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some key texts


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)


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consumer creativity

• Creativity is generally defined as the production of novel, sef l ideas or problem sol tions It refers to both the process useful ideas or problem solutions. It refers to both the process

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


consumer creativity

Individual creativity:

Mozart claimed that pleasant moods were most conducive to his 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

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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 and authentic self Cyberspace becomes the


renewed, re-unified, and authentic self. Cyberspace becomes the sacred place for contemplation and self-construction, and the space where our digitalized minds freed from our corporeal reality, become creative.

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 qualitative shift in the nature of the creative process


p q p

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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)

objective of presentation

• Assertion: the creativity and productivity of consumers online is exceptional and is beginning to offer major managerial challenges 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


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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 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.

types of creative consumer behavior


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swarms

“S ” i th ik i t th d ll ti f “Swarms” is the moniker we give to the amassed collections of 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.


swarms


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swarms


swarms


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swarms


mobs

“M b ” h hi h t ti f i ti t ib ti b t “Mobs” have a high concentration of innovation contribution, 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.


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mobs


mobs


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mobs


mobs


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mobs


crowds

This is the term we give to large, organized groups who gather or are g g , g g p g

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.

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crowds


crowds


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crowds


crowds


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crowds


hives

At the furthest level of creativity contribution are consumers who ygather 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.


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virtual space design by hives


film productions by hives


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product design by hives


product design by hives


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Andrea HemetsbergerInnsbruck University School of ManagementBenjamin Grycams "Beck's Experience". Foto: Lars Cramer

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Andrea HemetsbergerInnsbruck University School of ManagementCodename: Alexis

software production by hives


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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 ?

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 consumersEnabling technology (Web 2 0) social platforms interactivity is key


– Enabling technology (Web 2.0), social platforms, interactivity is key, contributing instead of ‘managing’

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Thank you for your attention!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.


the wisdom of consumer crowds

Business

consumer creativity

hemetsberger schau

creative consumer cultures

innovative consumer

actual idea

nature virtual

key point

information age