Thomas Kohler

Co-creation in virtual worlds: the design of the user experience

Emerging virtual worlds, such as the prominent Second Life, offer unprecedented opportunities for companies to collaborate with co-creating users. However, pioneering corporate co-creation systems fail to attract a satisfying level of participation and engagement. The experience users have with the co-creation system is the key to making virtual places a vibrant source of great connections, creativity, and co-creation. While prior research on co-creation serves as a foundation for this work, it does not provide adequate guidance on how to design co-creation systems in virtual worlds. To address this shortcoming, a 20-month action research project was conducted to study the users experience and to identify design principles for virtual co-creation systems. In two action research cycles, a virtual co-creation system called Ideation Quest was created, deployed, evaluated, and improved. The study reveals how to design co-creation systems and enriches research on co-creation to fit the virtual world context. Practitioners receive a helpful framework to leverage virtual worlds for co-creation.

Avatar-based innovation: Consequences of the virtual co-creation experience

Virtual worlds, such as the prominent Second Life (SL), offer unprecedented opportunities for companies to tap the innovative potential of consumers and consumer communities. Despite the potential, the studied corporate open innovation initiatives fail to attract sustained engagement among co-creating participants. The underdeveloped state of these islands in terms of innovation tasks and the lack of knowledge about how to attract innovative avatars raise key concerns about the nature of the experience avatars have on corporate sites. In a quantitative study we examine the importance of the experience in encouraging active participation in the innovation tasks. When participants experience an inspiring, intrinsically motivating, involving and fun co-creation experience, they participate more intensely. Prior research on virtual new product development is extended to the virtual world context and insights of the virtual co-creation experience serve as guidelines for the conception of avatar-based innovation initiatives.

Business model innovation: coffee triumphs for Nespresso

Purpose: This article aims to examine the concept of business model innovation and to discuss the design of the key elements. Based on a detailed case study of Nespresso, it seeks to outline how bu ...

Crowdsourcing-Based Business Models: How to Create and Capture Value:

Technology has transformed individuals from mere consumers of products to empowered participants in value co-creation. While numerous firms experiment with involving a crowd in value creation, few companies turn crowdsourcing projects into thriving platforms with a powerful business model. To address this challenge, this article analyzes successful platforms to identify patterns of effective crowdsourcing-based business models. The results provide guidance for managers who need to create new (or adapt existing) business models.

Crowdsourcing business models that last

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss how to sustain crowdsourcing business models. Emerging companies are innovating their business model to rely on a crowd of participants and involve contributing users in value capture. While some organizations demonstrate initial success, sustaining a crowdsourcing business model is challenging. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a comparative case study of the prominent crowdsourcing communities Threadless and Quirky. Participatory observation resulted in over 380 analyzed comments. Findings Seven lessons from Threadless’s success and Quirky’s failure are discussed to derive implications for sustaining crowdsourcing business models. Research limitations/implications Because both cases are integrator platforms build around contests, other crowdsourcing platform types should be studied to enrich the findings. Practical implications Managers receive guidance on how to design a sustainable business model that involves the crowd in creating value and lets the crowd participate in value capture. Originality/value Current research primarily addresses the question of how companies can take advantage of crowdsourcing and mainly considers corporate value capture. The original contribution of this article is a set of strategies to sustain crowdsourcing platforms by taking a platform’s entire business model into account.

Avatar-Based Innovation: Consequences of the Virtual Co-Creation Experience

Virtual worlds, such as the prominent Second Life (SL), offer unprecedented opportunities for companies to tap the innovative potential of consumers and consumer communities. Despite the potential, the studied corporate open innovation initiatives fail to attract sustained engagement among co-creating participants. The underdeveloped state of these islands in terms of innovation tasks and the lack of knowledge about how to attract innovative avatars raise key concerns about the nature of the experience avatars have on corporate sites. In a quantitative study we examine the importance of the experience in encouraging active participation in the innovation tasks. When participants experience an inspiring, intrinsically motivating, involving and fun co-creation experience, they participate more intensely. Prior research on virtual new product development is extended to the virtual world context and insights of the virtual co-creation experience serve as guidelines for the conception of avatar-based innovation initiatives.

Innovation for Volunteer Travel: Using Crowdsourcing to Create Change

With the rising interest in volunteer travel and the growing number of volunteer travel providers, there is a need for innovation towards a more collaborative approach to volunteer travel. Many volunteer travel providers charge high fees for volunteer trips that oftentimes fail to create a positive impact on local communities. We propose that a crowdsourcing platform can act as an intermediary between travellers and local communities. Crowdsourcing has the potential to empower local communities in travel destinations to offer a meaningful travel experience that will benefit their community. To explore the opportunities of crowdsourcing for volunteer travel, this case study investigates travel2change—a platform to connect travellers and locals to create change. This online platform puts travellers seeking a meaningful and authentic experience of volunteerism, in touch with local hosts. We describe the crowdsourcing approach of travel2change, shed light on its business model and discuss the challenges and lessons learned.

Experience design for communities in virtual worlds: come for the attraction, stay for the interaction

Virtual worlds offer unprecedented opportunities for companies to tap the innovative potential of consumers and consumer communities. One central precondition of a co-creation approach is to turn a one-time visitor into a returning member of an innovating community. The purpose of this article is to explore how virtual space and the interaction with users needs to be designed to achieve sustained engagement among avatars and motivate them to contribute to innovation tasks. Based on focus groups with experienced Second Life residents and qualitative interviews with co-creating consumers, we suggest ways to design the virtual space and propose strategies to effectively build community. This research extends theory about consumer communities to virtual worlds and provides practical guidelines how to successfully design virtual co-creation projects in virtual worlds.

Crowdsourcing Social Innovation in Tourism: Insights on Platform Design

Crowdsourcing strategies that harness the collective energy and creativity of large numbers of contributors are useful to create social innovation. While the number of crowdsourcing social innovation platforms is increasing, many fail to engage a critical mass of users who are both willing and capable to participate in value co-creation. To address this shortcoming, a 6-year action research project was conducted to study the design of crowdsourcing platforms for social innovation in the tourism industry. In two action research cycles involving numerous data collection strategies and interventions, a crowdsourcing platform called travel2change was created, deployed, evaluated, and improved. The study reveals a set of design principles for crowdsourcing social innovation platforms and enriches research on crowdsourcing to fit the social innovation context. Practitioners receive helpful insights to leverage crowdsourcing for social innovation.

How to Scale Crowdsourcing Platforms

Innovative companies are building their business upon the participation of crowds. These crowdsourcing business models are powerful because they are scalable. By encouraging external innovators to contribute to value creation, crowdsourcing innovation platforms have the capability to grow significantly in size and revenue without equally increasing its costs. However, quickly and sustainably scaling crowdsourcing platforms is a daunting challenge. This article considers more than 20 leading crowdsourcing ventures to identify scaling challenges and strategies. The resulting framework presents scaling paths for managers of crowdsourcing ventures as well as executives of traditional companies who seek to build scalable crowdsourcing platforms.