Consumer-Generated-Content in Virtual Communities as a Source of Innovation for Companies

Customers are an abundant source of innovation; they are a powerhouse of creative concepts that a company might not have had the time or resources to pursue. Fortunately, managers today have copious consumer-generated suggestions and feedback at their disposal. As ideas for creative solutions are limited, ignoring or mismanaging innovative ideas from consumers can lead to a loss of potential revenues and competitiveness in the marketplace. As feedback is considered an investigation of the interaction between the brand and customers, this research suggests that such actions would be evident to a lesser extent concerning low-involvement items. Additionally, this study speculates that customers of hedonistic products are more likely to provide hedonistic novel ideas, whereas customers of utilitarian products will offer rational and useful solutions for the product. Using a netnographic approach, this study focuses on virtual communities of brands with high and low brand involvement for commodities that are both hedonistic and utilitarian. Contrary to our expectations, findings suggest that no significant differences arise between these brands and product categories regarding consumers‘ innovative feedback behavior, implying that any brand may benefit from this source of innovation.