Who is the Active Consumer? : Insight into Contemporary Innovation and Marketing Practices

There are consumers who engage in innovation and who cocreate value together with other consumers, and with producers, in relation to products. This thesis has the purpose of exploring the nature of this ‘active consumer’ from a firm perspective, and thereby providing an answer to the thesis-level research question: ‘What are the implications of the active consumer on innovation and marketing practices?’ Four papers, drawing on research in the fields of consumer innovation and value cocreation, are presented that contain findings about the knowledge of the active consumer (Paper I), support (Paper II) and management (Paper III) of the active consumer, and challenges with the active consumer (Paper IV). The papers rest on two research efforts: a study of the video game industry that includes an investigation of a game developer and a netnography of its consumer community and a study of the entire development of a customer loyalty card by a leading grocery retailer. The insights into the active consumer gained from the four papers are analyzed against the thesis-level research question using an explanatory lens that is developed through the notion of practice, rendering a discussion about the implications of the active consumer on the scripts of innovation and marketing practices. The thesis is concluded with a discussion of its contributions and implications for innovation and marketing scholars and managers.