Opportunities for Entrepreneurial Development and Growth Through Online Communities, Collaboration and Co-Creation

The Web 2.0 era brought with it a proliferation in applications providing ample opportunities for online exchanges, sharing and collaboration among Internet users. Much of these exchanges take place within online communities. The purpose of the current chapter is to review some of the core manifestations of value creating activities in the new network economy, in particular with respect to their potential influences on entrepreneurial firms. Acknowledging the unique circumstances under which entrepreneurs operate, the current chapter suggests a framework highlighting ways in which entrepreneurs can tap into resources that are available through online communities. In particular the framework addresses online community-enabled product development (including crowdsourcing), marketing (including brand communities and online word-of-mouth) and financing (including crowdfunding) activities with respect to the three core attributes of entrepreneurial processes – opportunity recognition, marshaling of resources and capacity development