Reti virtuali e brokering di innovazione

Il capitolo affronta il ruolo dei broker tecnologici, sviluppando un'analisi esplorativa delle principali tipologie: i solution providers, i technology marketplaces, gli industry marketplaces. Vengono quindi illustrati gli elementi distintivi dei broker virtuali, approfondendo tanto le implicazioni teoriche e manageriali, quanto le implicazioni di policy. Conclude il contributo una sezione sui limiti dell'analisi svolta e le direzioni della ricerca futura

Affiliation o Lock-in? Strategie di marketing per competere in Internet

Per le aziende che operano nel mondo di Internet è difficile preservare il vantaggio competitivo nel corso del tempo. La crescente disponibilità di informazioni e l’impressionante numero di operatori in molteplici settori che offrono prodotti e servizi simili minano la tradizionale fedeltà che il cliente riponeva nei produttori dell’economia fordista. Grazie a uno studio di casi multipli basato su un insieme di operatori di successo nel mondo di Internet che pongono la fedeltà dei rispettivi clienti al centro della mission aziendale, il lavoro mette in luce che una possibile strategia di marketing di successo in ambienti virtuali si fonda sull’integrazione tra affiliation e lock-in. L’affiliation, ovvero la capacità di stimolare in modo equo la fiducia della clientela, permette di accrescere l’attenzione dei clienti rispetto al sito; il lock-in, ovvero la capacità dell’azienda di creare dei costi di cambiamento per il cliente, serve a trasformare in comportamenti di acquisto continuativi le visite del cliente. Grazie ad affiliation e lock-in l’operatore di e-commerce è cioè in grado di stimolare contemporaneamente la fedeltà cognitiva e quella comportamentale dei clienti, garantendo quindi stabilità nelle stream of revenues nel corso del tempo. Il lavoro mette in luce le specifiche attività che possono essere svolte per accrescere la base dei propri clienti su Internet. In sintesi, l’articolo fornisce una lettura con spunti strategici particolarmente interessanti per le aziende che competono su Internet e sono desiderose di accrescere la retention della loro base di clienti

Marketing in Rete. Analisi e decisioni nell’economia digitale.

Il volume approfondisce i processi di marketing analitico, strategico ed operativo nell'ambito dei contesti digitali, enfatizzando le opportunità emergenti per le imprese di potenziamento dei propri processi di gestione della relazione con i consumatori attraverso Interne

Il marketing digitale: dal marketing interattivo al marketing collaborativo.

Si illustrano i principali strumenti tecnologici a disposizione delle imprese per implementare la collaborazione col cliente nei processi di marketing

“Co-developing New Products with Customers”

This chapter focuses on two emerging patterns that characterize innovation in the knowledge economy: (a) the increasing openness of the innovation process thanks to the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT); (b) the emerging role of customers as co-creators of innovation. The underlying theme of our chapter is that ICT have created the problem – an increasing need for continuous innovation in a context where information is transparent, competitors are just one click away, and product lifecycles are shrinking. However, ICT also provide the solution - enabling new forms of value co-creation with customers and an efficient way to harness distributed competences (von Hippel, 2001a; Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). While customer interaction has always been important in new product development (e.g., Griffin and Hauser, 1993; Leonard, 1995; von Hippel, 2001b; Thomke and von Hippel, 2002), the widespread deployment of ICT has greatly enhanced the ability of firms to engage with customers in the product innovation process (Dahan and Hauser, 2002b; Urban and Hauser, 2004). Great emphasis has been put on the potential of the Web as a tool of adaptive co-development of new products which allows consumers to become co-developers of innovation with companies which systematically solicit their feedback by using iterative prototyping and adopting a rapid experimentation approach (Bhattacharya, Krishnan, Mahajan, 1998; Iansiti and MacCormack, 1997). Effectively designed Web sites can not only provide useful information to help consumers express their preferences but can also contribute to increasing consumer trust and, consequently, customer willingness to share information (Urban, Sultan, Qualls, 2001). By creating virtual customer environments, firms can tap into customer knowledge through an ongoing dialogue (Nambisan, 2002). The Internet, for instance, enhances the ability of firms to engage customers in collaborative innovation in several ways. It allows firms to transform episodic and one-way customer interactions into a persistent dialogue with customers. Through the creation of virtual customer communities, it allows firms to tap into the social dimension of customer knowledge shared among groups of customers with shared interests (Sawhney and Prandelli, 2000). And it extends the reach and the scope of the firm’s customer interactions through the use of independent third-parties to reach non-customers – competitors’ customers or prospective customers (Verona, Prandelli, Sawhney, 2006). Firms can use a variety of mechanisms to facilitate collaborative innovation in virtual environments (Dahan and Hauser, 2002a; Prandelli, Verona, Raccagni, 2006). These mechanisms differ in terms of the stage of the new product development process that they are most useful for, and the nature of the customer interactions they enable. We present detailed anecdotes to show how best practice firms are using these mechanisms to improve the speed, cost, and quality of their new product development process. Through these in-depth case studies, we derive lessons for organization and strategy, as well as the implications for academics and manager

La gestione delle comunità virtuali per lo sviluppo di relazioni e conoscenze

Il capitolo approfondisce il processo di nascita e sviluppo delle comunità virtuali. Vengono successivamente evidenziate le specificità delle comunità virtuali di consumo e le funzioni che queste possono svolgere per le imprese. In particolare, viene illustrato il ruolo delle comunità virtuali di consumo come strumenti di apprendimento e collaborazione con il mercato, delineando i fondamentali principi di progettazione e gestione di tali comunità

A dynamic model of customer loyalty to sustain competitive advantage on the Web

In order to understand the sustainability of competitive advantage in the Internet economy, we provide in depth longitudinal data on customer-based strategies implemented by four successful Internet players. Results highlight the presence of a dynamic model for sticking customers to the company website, which paces customer affiliation and customer lock-in

A dynamic model of customer stickiness to sustain competitive advantage in the frictionless economy

In order to understand the sustainability of competitive advantage in the Internet economy, we provide in depth longitudinal data on customer-based strategies implemented by four successful Internet players. Results highlight the presence of a dynamic model for sticking customers to the company website, which paces customer affiliation and customer lock-i

From Software to Hardware: The Changing Technology of Open Source

Recent technological change has also had an impact on open source innovation: products are, in fact, becoming more and more intelligent and often include a software 'soul' embedded in a body made of 'dumb' material. Despite our understanding of open source systems, the evidence that has been produced in scholarly publications and upon which the theory has been conceived is mainly about software (e.g., Linux) and service businesses (e.g. Wikipedia). Interestingly, however, a growing number of cases of open source hardware are now emerging. Social hardware or open source hardware (OSH) is indeed entering industries ranging from synthesizers to MP3 players, from guitar amplifiers to high-end voice-over-IP phone routers, mobile phones and microcontrollers .A large number of hardware inventors working on these product categories have begun to enjoy freely publishing their specifications. Despite its growing diffusion and relevance to business, the newly emerging topic of OSH has received limited attention in the literature. In our contribution, we specify the characteristics of OSH compared to OSS. We then review the literature on open innovation, attempting to identify what might be relevant to OSH as well as some unanswered questions in this context. Next, we turn to the empirical evidence on how OSH is developed and how the leader of an OSH platform can sustain itself over time from an economic standpoint. More specifically, we focus on a leading case of OSH: Arduino, the first open-source microcontroller product. We conclude our work by addressing the managerial implications, limits, and future drivers for research in this field