Why is this study important?
The pressures of globalization, virtualization, the ‘credit-crunch’, and the power of consumers have been well documented. Due to these pressures, businesses are experiencing a shift from a regulated, hierarchical world, into a dynamic, fast-changing, business environment that emphasizes collaboration and draws upon the diversity of people, expertise and events around the world.
Understanding new types of collaboration is not a new initiative, but the emphasis has traditionally been on solving problems from within the organization, with the established workforce, and largely using technologies such as spreadsheets, email, instant messaging and track changes in word documents.
This research project will explore how a NEW type of collaboration is facilitating business model innovation and with it, competitive advantage. This new type of collaboration breaks conventional internal thinking and reinforces the premise that the highest added value innovation comes from outside an organization. It is about a much larger group of people - anyone, anywhere, with previously no ties or connections - using internet-based social media tools, such as blogs, wikis and social networking, to connect individuals outside of organizational boundaries to solve problems and create knowledge faster.
To see examples of these initiatives, please click here
Even though many individuals have accepted the role of social media as a means of personal gratification, it is not clear if businesses are coming to recognize its value to solve specific issues and gain competitive advantage. This study seeks to answer that question by uncovering current trends and practices of how organizations use social media tools for collaborative innovation.
Who can participate in the study?
We are looking for organizations of any size representing any country, sector, or industry. Organizations must be using social media tools in one of the following ways:
- To foster external collaboration (e.g., with customers, partners, or the Internet audience at large), or
- To facilitate internal collaboration within the company and are currently considering their external use In terms of individual participants, our goal is to involve people who have played a management role in carrying out social media initiatives in their organizations.
How will the data be collected? How much time will it take to participate?
After you fill out the online participation form (see the link at the bottom of this page), we will contact you to assess your candidacy in this study. Also, please keep in mind that we would like to determine the people in your organization that would be best suited to participate in the study´s interviewing process during this assessment as well.
Who are the researchers?
The project team is led by individuals from IESE Business School (Spain), Rochester Institute of Technology (USA), Henley Business School (UK), and Cisco.
 | Dr. Sandra Sieber, Associate Professor, IESE Business School
Sandra Sieber is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Information Systems at IESE Business School. Currently, Dr. Sieber’s research is focused on how adoption of IT-enabled innovations changes work-practices in industries such as banking, media and entertainment. From 2001 to 2004, she was appointed as the Academic Director of the PricewaterhouseCoopers - IESE eBusiness Center. In 2003, she was a visiting scholar at the Sloan School of Management, MIT.
|  | Dr. Evgeny Kaganer, Assistant Professor, IESE Business School
Evgeny Kaganer is an Assistant Professor at IESE Business School where he teaches MBA and executive courses in IT management and e-business strategy. Dr. Kaganer’s research interests focus on IT innovation diffusion, industry transformations, and web-enabled business models. His professional experience includes five plus years as a regional manager in a major Russian financial services firm. He has also done consulting in the area of IT implementation and strategy for a number of small and medium-sized firms in the US and Europe.
|  | Dr. Neil Hair, Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology
Neil Hair holds Chartered Marketer Status from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. His research and consulting activities are cutting edge, recent projects include understanding perceptions of advertising and customer value in popular online social networks like Myspace and Facebook, personal branding in virtual space, and virtual ethnography in popular worlds such as Second Life. He is also passionate about his role as a facilitator having recently won RIT's highest teaching award. He has been awarded several research grants for pursuing pedagogy research. One such interest involves teaching the world's first programme on the commercialization of Second Life. |  | Dr. Moira Clark, Professor, Henley Business School
Moria Clark is Professor of Strategic Marketing at Henley Business School as well as Director of The Henley Centre for Customer Management. She also serves as a consultant to a number of leading UK and European companies. She is a frequent keynote speaker at many public and in- company seminars and conferences around the world. Her major area of research and consulting is in Customer Relationship Management, Customer Retention and Internal Marketing in the Service sector. She has worked extensively in the area of culture and climate, its impact on retention and loyalty and the critical linkages between employee behavior and customer retention. She has published widely on this subject and is co-author of Relationship Marketing for Competitive Advantage, Winning and Keeping Customers and Relationship Marketing: Strategy and Implementation. |  | Dr. Christine Bailey, Cisco
Christine Bailey is Marketing Director, Services, European Markets at Cisco Systems. She has 18 years’ experience in technology and services marketing and speaks frequently at academic and industry conferences. She recently completed a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) from Cranfield School of Management. Previously she spent five years as Marketing Director of Extraprise (now Detica), a specialist CRM consultancy firm. Other employers include Hewlett-Packard and Cambridge Technology Partners, where she ran the European arm of the first global online community for CIOs. |
Will the data be kept confidential?
We are always very mindful of participants' confidentiality concerns. We will work with members of your executive team to ensure that the study findings can be shared publicly. No information will be ever disclosed without an official sign-off. We approach this project as a long-term initiative and, therefore, seek to build mutually-beneficial relationships with the participants.
What are the benefits of participating?
Each person or organization participating in the study will receive a detailed report of study findings and recommendations. As one of the first comprehensive examinations of the current practices and impact of the use of social media on innovation, the report will benefit anyone who is currently engaged in or is considering engaging in related initiatives.
In addition, an online workshop covering key learning points related to the findings will be conducted at the completion of the study. All participants will be welcome to attend this workshop. More details about this workshop will be provided at a later time.
Key highlights of the study will be published in relevant journals and magazines, increasing visibility of the various social media initiatives that are currently being carried out by organizations. If you wish (and authorize us to do so) your company’s name may be included in these publications.
What is the timeframe for the project?
Our goal is to complete data collection by the end of Summer 2009 and report the findings of the study in Fall 2009.
How to participate?
Please, click here to fill out an online participation form.
|
 |
