Intersecting technical knowledge, marketing experience and customer activities to innovate

Firms are constantly looking for more effective ways to improve their products and services. Recent studies have outlined the benefits of opening the innovation process to external knowledge sources. The creative and innovation locus can lie also outside the firm, in places where technical knowledge, marketing experience and customer activities intersect. The Web 2.0 and the online communities, favoring the communication and the collaboration among firms and their customers, become an important way to support the creativity and the development of innovative ideas through social interactions. We have selected a case study of a multinational firm that exploits an online community and other social platforms to improve its practice of innovation