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    Why Do User Communities Matter for Strategy?
    21 Jul 2019Working Paper Summaries

    Why Do User Communities Matter for Strategy?

    by Sonali K. Shah and Frank Nagle
    Communities of users are shaping the industrial landscape and contributing to the innovations we use every day. The effects of user communities on firms, industries, and society will continue to grow. This article discusses the relationship between user communities and firms to shed light on avenues for future research in business strategy.
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    Author Abstract

    User communities represent a unique organizing structure for the exchange of ideas and knowledge. They are organizations composed primarily of users working collaboratively, voluntarily, and with minimal oversight to freely and openly develop and exchange knowledge around a common artifact. The prevalence of user communities appears to be on the rise, as evidenced by communities across a variety of fields ranging from software to Legos to sports equipment. In this essay, we discuss how firms can benefit from working with user communities––that is, we discuss the opportunities for firms to leverage user communities as a source of open innovation. We theorize the conditions under which user communities will emerge and function and discuss the benefits that user communities can provide and the challenges they can create for firms, thereby illustrating the relevance and import of user communities to firms and the strategic management literature.

    Paper Information

    • Full Working Paper Text
    • Working Paper Publication Date: June 2019
    • HBS Working Paper Number:
    • Faculty Unit(s): Strategy
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    Frank Nagle
    Frank Nagle
    Assistant Professor of Business Administration
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