Community as a locus of innovation: co-innovation with users in the creative industries

The aim of the paper is to characterize innovation with user communities and to explore managerial implications for creative industries. Based on four case studies, we explore the interrelations between the firm and user communities. The digitalization and virtualization of interactions change the ways in which the boundaries between the firm and its user community are defined. User communities are actively developing new products, new services. Definitions of value differ for firms and users. Users are valuating the possibility to be creative, to transform individual creativity into products while firms are making money with innovation. Finally, innovation with user communities may modify the respective identities of firms and communities.