How Companies Make Use of Clients' Activity in the Internet?

The subject of the article is how companies make use of Internet users' potential in creating values. The presented information include aims, rules and ways of implementation, as well as expected results of demand models of innovation based on consumers' knowledge and competencies. The main emphasis was put on user driven innovation and design thinking attitudes. The next part of the article refers to crowdsourcing as a mechanism of acquiring clients' ideas, with the indication of assumptions and examples of this kind of cooperation with clients. The diversity of Internet users' potential was also underlined. In the third part of the article research results were analyzed, which referred to how companies use Internet technologies in customer relations. Particular emphasis was put on the results of nationwide survey conducted by the author, and in order to deepen the diagnosis, the author presented the results of a survey conducted among companies, which are leaders in strategic sectors of Polish economy. A significant point of reference for the discussed issues was also results of studies conducted in companies operating on international market. The last part of the article was devoted to factors stimulating and inhibiting the development of crowdsourcing, which companies should take into account when developing their cooperation with clients in the Internet