This article investigates a customer co-creation project at the innovation process front-end of a large well-known Italian food manufacturer, which is enabled by social media. The purpose is to shed light on the role of such a technology in transforming the characteristics of the FEI, in terms of boundaries and knowledge distance: what type of innovation ideas – exploratory or exploitative ones - does the practice enable? Could social media be used to manage the explore-exploit paradox, thus transforming the practice in an ambidextrous one? The empirical analysis highlights that the investigated customer co-creation practice has evolved in an emergent way, from the initial stage of ideas exploitation to a successive stage in which both exploitation and exploration are simultaneously accomplished.
The Role of Social Software for Customer Co-Creation: does it Change the Practice for Innovation?
MARTINI, ANTONELLA;
2012-01-01
Abstract
This article investigates a customer co-creation project at the innovation process front-end of a large well-known Italian food manufacturer, which is enabled by social media. The purpose is to shed light on the role of such a technology in transforming the characteristics of the FEI, in terms of boundaries and knowledge distance: what type of innovation ideas – exploratory or exploitative ones - does the practice enable? Could social media be used to manage the explore-exploit paradox, thus transforming the practice in an ambidextrous one? The empirical analysis highlights that the investigated customer co-creation practice has evolved in an emergent way, from the initial stage of ideas exploitation to a successive stage in which both exploitation and exploration are simultaneously accomplished.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.