ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the dynamics at play between community members before, during, and after the launch of a new product by one of its members. While most of the literature on user innovation focuses on production/technology-oriented user communities, this paper studies a community of enthusiast consumers. Enthusiast communities are a specific case of user communities with their own household sector (HHS) innovation practices. The paper relies on a five-year study conducted on a community of speleology and mountain sports enthusiasts who created a new device for their leisure activity. We argue this is a hybrid HHS innovation, as it simultaneously pertains to two orders of worth: the ‘inspired’ order of the enthusiast community, and the market order of the entrepreneur’s business. The findings show that such hybrid innovations enhance communal well-being and that the community plays the role of incubator for these innovations.

摘要

本文重点关注社区成员在其成员之一推出新产品之前、期间和之后的互动动态。虽然大多数关于用户创新的文献都侧重于面向生产/技术的用户社区，但本文研究的是狂热消费者社区。爱好者社区是具有自己的家庭部门 (HHS) 创新实践的用户社区的一个特例。该论文基于对洞穴学和山地运动爱好者社区进行的为期五年的研究，他们为他们的休闲活动创造了一种新设备。我们认为这是一种混合 HHS 创新，因为它同时涉及两个价值秩序：爱好者社区的“灵感”秩序和企业家业务的市场秩序。