How Social Media Helps Co-create Innovation
by Marisa Muninger, Dominik Mahr, and Wafa Hammedi
Yes, firms know more than 3 billion people spend a considerable amount of time on social media to create and share user-generated content (e.g., text, images and videos). And yet, despite the positive influence of social media use on revenues, many firms struggle to integrate the rich social media content in their innovation activities.
The fact is, over 90% of companies don’t have the abilities to leverage social media tools for innovation and over 70% of creative and marketing professionals raise concerns about the talent gap when it comes to digital skills.
While social media – thanks to its instant, two-way, and global features – is considerably changing the way companies are co-creating innovation with their customers, little is known about the best practices at different stages of the innovation process and key success factors for an effective use of social media.
So our study, forthcoming in the Journal of Business Research (Muninger, Hammedi, & Mahr, 2019), focused on two main objectives:
- Determine firms’ objectives and activities when using social media tools for co-creation activities throughout their innovation process;
- Identify the capabilities and skills needed to leverage social media use in the innovation process.
The study was conducted among 16 multinational companies active in different industries and based on their social media proficiency. Data was collected through extensive secondary data collection and interviews with 26 experienced managers. The aim was to understand their social media use in the various stages of the innovation process, together with the resources, competences and processes required to reap benefits of such use.
HOW TO BENEFIT FROM CO-CREATION ACTIVITIES FOR INNOVATION?
Traditionally, different stages characterize the innovation process from ideation to product launch. Our study identifies the objectives and methods used by firms to leverage social media in these different stages. Here’s what we found:
In the ideation stage, firms increase consumer input by gathering insights in a proactive (e.g. crowdsourcing, hackathons and contests) or reactive (e.g., social listening, netnography, text mining and data mining) way. Beiersdorf used netnography, a method that applies anthropological research to the Internet for a better understanding of attitudes and behaviors (Kozinets, 2002) to create the Nivea Black & White deodorant. From the listening of online conversations across more than 200 social media platforms to the new product launch, Beiersdorf managed to leverage social media at all stages of the innovation process.
In the development stage, wikis, toolkits, virtual product testing and shared collaboration spaces facilitate information sharing across teams and the development of concepts and prototypes with customers (Marion, Barczak, & Hultink, 2014). Prototyping can lead to the optimization of firms’ resource and process configuration to facilitate users’ engagement with services. For example, Orange Company used prototyping with their customers for the registration and activation process in order to create better service adoption (Yu & Sangiorgi, 2017).
In the launch stage, blogging and vlogging activities create awareness, and search for new products and evoke viral effects (Kim & Hanssens, 2017). In turn, information released on social media enhances the communication of an innovation and contributes to customers’ reach.
After the launch stage, firms continuously access customer feedback through social listening or live conversations, thereby increasing brand engagement (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Audible, an audio book service, employs word of mouth advertising and partnerships with influential YouTube contributors to increase customers’ awareness and engagement. Successful firms use information bits and pieces to trigger ideation and iteratively go again through the innovation stages.
CAPABILITIES AND SKILLS TO LEVERAGE CO-CREATION ACTIVITIES
Considering the innumerable social media platforms and their complexity, firms need a set of unique resources, competences and processes to realize those objectives. Based on our data collection, we introduced a new integrative framework that sheds light on key capabilities and skills firms need. From the analysis of firms’ proficiency with social media use for innovation, we derived a maturity model that prioritizes key capabilities and resources for managers.
Social media orchestrators
26% of creative professionals point the lack of cross-departmental collaboration as the biggest barrier to executing digital initiatives. Our study reveals social media managers play a critical role as resource and activity orchestrators. They are characterized by the so-called T-shaped skills that contribute to both securing in-depth knowledge in a certain field of expertise (social media) and the ability to collaborate with teams and departments in order to achieve common objectives. In addition, social media managers should demonstrate sufficient proficiency to manipulate information, develop ideas, and achieve strategic goals supported by technology (Colbert, Yee, & George, 2016). A best practice is the involvement (e.g., through diverse innovation teams) of millennials who demonstrate a good understanding of digital platforms and their features, are eager to learn by experimentation, and view social media as primary information source.
Visionary leadership
Firms with top managers that demonstrate a clear vision for innovation and consistent leadership behaviors have better knowledge integration capacity (Caridi-Zahavi, Carmeli, & Arazy, 2016).The investigated firms with top leaders that deem social media to be a top priority in their company get positive outcomes from using social media in their innovation process. By encouraging team empowerment and collaboration inside their firm, these top managers facilitate knowledge flows and social media integration.
Intrapreneurship
Flat hierarchical structures and strong team empowerment drive proactive thinking and employees’ behavior. Such intrapreneurship (entrepreneurship within existing organizations) strongly relates to new business venturing, innovativeness, self-renewal, and proactivity (Antoncic & Hisrich, 2001). An internal culture that supports employees’ personal projects drives intrinsic motivation and creativity at work. Hence firms with a lean start-up mentality prompt the growing phenomenon of internal or external start-up incubation. These firms tend to leverage social media more effectively by extensively using “test and learn” cycles which in turn, accelerate innovation cycles.
Process embeddedness
Successful firms foster a natural embedding of social media activities and information into weekly meetings, share information via a number of dedicated platforms, use common data management tools, and search for synergies between the different teams. As a result, social media information is used to make strategic decisions in a more structural way. This finding answers one of the most critical concern raised by CEO’s in a new report published by PWC about firms’ lack of capabilities in leveraging customer data strategically. Alongside with embeddedness, we find that fast-decision-making processes are also key in anticipating and responding to market opportunities through social media.
KEY TAKE AWAYS:
- Company leaders should empower the lower organizational levels and encourage experimentations to test ideas and gather feedback within short timings. They should also educate their employees to succeed in their digital transformation.
- Firms should hire new social media-savvy employees. A redesign of internal functions makes the job attractive for them and breaks silos to increase collaboration between different departments. This may also involve a shift in the generational balance by including more millennials in strategic jobs.
- The implementation of processes dedicated to social media and innovation activities (e.g., weekly meetings, shared reporting tools) that blend information and data from innovation, digital and marketing teams, may facilitate knowledge flows across business units and enhance co-creation initiatives.
Marisa Muninger
Lecturer International Management
Marketing & MIS
ICHEC Brussels Management School
Dominik Mahr
Associate Professor
Scientific Director Service Science Factory
Maastricht University
Wafa Hammedi
Associate Professor, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium
References:
Caridi-Zahavi, O., Carmeli, A., & Arazy, O. (2016). The Influence of CEOs’ Visionary Innovation Leadership on the Performance of High-Technology Ventures: The Mediating Roles of Connectivity and Knowledge Integration. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 33(3), 356–376.
Colbert, A., Yee, N., & George, G. (2016). The digital workforce and the workplace of the future. Academy of Management Journal, 59(3), 731–739.
Kim, H., & Hanssens, D. M. (2017). Advertising and Word-of-Mouth Effects on Pre-launch Consumer Interest and Initial Sales of Experience Products. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 37, 57–74.
Kozinets, R. V. (2002). The field behind the screen : Using netnography for marketing research in online communities. Journal of Marketing Research, 39(1), 61–72.
Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52(4), 357–365.
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Yu, E., & Sangiorgi, D. (2017). Service Design as an Approach to Implement the Value Cocreation Perspective in New Service Development. Journal of Service Research, 21(1), 40–58.
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Photo: https://www.toprankblog.com/2011/02/how-to-overcome-4-social-media-headaches/
Forthcoming article: Muninger, M. I., Hammedi, W., & Mahr, D. (2019). The value of social media for innovation: A capability perspective. Journal of Business Research, 95, 116-127. A copy of the forthcoming article may be obtained from the authors. Link to the article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0148296318304855
