-quent product updates and social interactions between users. The proposed approach builds on theoretical work on experiential products to define consumer utility as a function of intrinsic
preferences, social interactions, the match of content with user experience, and future benefits We empirically test our model using a novel individual data set from the online gaming industry
but with primarily impact on a small segment of early users that are skilled also For other segments, postponement of new content launch is almost irrelevant.
enjoying the product individually or with a community of other users. Every period t, consumer i
of a user group (stage d=1; second, she decides on content consumption (stage d=2). These
Once part of a group, the user obtains a number of benefits, including the opportunity to socialize with other individuals who have similar interests
of users, individuals choose from the available consumption alternatives, j=0,,...Jt, where j=0
users to enjoy newly introduced content. In television series, consumers decide to watch an episode
Consumer communities, defined as networks of users or admirers of a brand, influence consumer perceptions of products (Algesheimer, Dholakia, and Herrmann, 2005;
with user interactions and social motivations explaining much of the variation in purchase choices and consumer behavior (e g.,
Examples of groups include users signing up to participate in a discussion forum about content, a Facebook group about a product, or a guild
At each time t, consumer i decides on their status regarding communities of users of the product
any connections to user communities. 2 We assume that consumers can make this decision at any
level of user experience at time t. Relatively more experienced consumers can help others, making
where lit denotes user i†s experience and lâ t stands for the average experience across all users at time
of a network of users and can be enjoyed separately from content consumption. The utility derived
level that neighbors the level of the user to be more enjoyable (Pollak, 1970; Spinnewyn, 1981) and
users likely care about their status. We model this status eï €ect by comparing individual i†s level lit and the mean level of other consumers at time t, lt,
and below the mean expertise level of the user population can be interpreted as â€oesnob†and â€oebandwagon†eï €ects, based on the literature on prestige-seeking
For examples, in our application, users of a video game can choose content that is hard to complete and have to repeat it in some cases multiple times before proceeding with the game
ability, the experience level of the user, the diï culty of the content, and guild membership status
2 are estimated parameters. 5 We assume that users know the number of updates that a firm is going to launch, for example based on historic innovation patterns by the firm as in
being above or below the average experience level lâ t+1 of the user population.
their competitive position in the user population, lëoei, t+1=I (li, t+1 ï¿
this assumption reasonable because we focus on experienced users and content had frequently been introduced for several years before the period analyzed in our study, providing enough information
First, users enjoy a storyline by repeatedly making consumption choices of content. Through these choices, they progress deeper into the storyline
Second, most user actions are visible to others since players interact in the shared environment and individuals have the opportunity to join online communities to share experiences
to provide a more complete experience to users and allow them to track their progress in the game
comes from additional fees paid by users to access the online game server and consumer content.
content was also similar in terms of user interaction and most additional content is introduced in a test server available to users, giving an almost perfect knowledge about the quality of content
before it goes live and allowing consumers to build expectations about the quality and timing of
The product usage data include actions of 206 users from one of the game servers, for whom the
These users were selected randomly from all experienced players who were able to access the content introduced on November 13th, 2008
data provides information about experienced users only. Second, the content introduced by the firm during our analysis was dedicated almost entirely to increasing participation of experienced players
On average, over the observed time periods, the users 13we obtained information about launch dates of expansions and patches from 2004 to 2008,
1 shows the daily participation of users measured by number of tasks completed, overall and with
t is defined as the highest level of content enjoyed by a user before that day. 14 The numbers indicate
the percentage of users at that level, while darker (lighter) lines between levels indicate that more
the first time a user performs a specific task in the game, each level l 2 {1, 2,,
and actually common to see users perform actions of the same level over time, and we observe repeated participation within a level
In the game, these communities are formal long-term groups of users who agree to cooperate and
a user do multiple tasks within the same day, we chose the higher level task to code participation on that day
The diï €erence is that to perform these tasks, users form temporary groups just before attempting a task using an option called â€oelooking for groupâ€
Based on information from user forums, the groups have one of two objectives: either be one of the top groups in the game
of analysis. At the beginning of our study, the percentage of users in groups was low, about 6
To control for user diï €erences in the empirical application, we introduce both observed 17after reading multiple user forums discussions, the decision of changing a group seems not to be driven primarily
by prestige. Instead, it appears that switches are due to better matches between the user and the group characteristics
e g.,, time of day available for playing) or because of a personal connection to the group. Unfortunately, we do not
In our application, the firm published ability measures for each user before the product launch, called badges (a term also used in gamification:
zero badges all the way up to 2500 badges, with a clear break in the data, with a group of users
because it might be easier for a group of users to provide insights about advanced content
users may fail to complete tasks and remain at the same level of expertise. We use data from the website World of Logs18 about the
times that users attempted and successfully completed tasks in the game. For individual and small
If users are part of a community, which allows for additional in-game coordination, these rates increase by about 10%while skilled players have an additional 10%chance
If user expertise is above or below the content level by at least four levels, these success rates are increased to 100%or decreased to 0%respectively
value between task complexity and user experience are identified from the observed choices of con -tent levels, given the experience levels of consumers at each period t. For example, a consumer of
observed diï €erences in actions of consumers above or below the mean level of the user population
Moreover, since the average level of all users is drifting over time, the identity of consumers above
to join a group is influenced by the expectation that users will gain from the group by obtaining
Our data show that users play more and at higher levels just before and once they are part
of a community, providing support to the forward-looking assumption that users anticipate those benefits when making the decision to join the group
measure changes in user participation with diï €erent innovation patterns and social interactions and discuss managerial implications
expertise users, as shown by the positive coeï cients when users are above the user population level
but especially so for high-skill users (coeï cient of 1. 9 vs. 1. 6). There are two reasons that explain
this result: first, more experienced users are likely to know where to find information and how to
navigate the process of joining a community, reducing the cost of joining a group; second, consumers
gets significant benefits, especially the low skilled users (0. 16 vs. 0. 13. In addition, when users
gain more expertise, the benefit of being part of a community becomes less important for low skilled
users(-0. 014) but increases for high skilled users (0. 018. This finding suggests that low skilled
users benefit from groups when they are starting to interact with content, but as their experience
while high skilled users benefit more and more from group engagement, explained possibly by a higher status in the group or the enjoyment
Parameter Low-Skill Users High-Skill Users Joining Cost Intercept 1-12.216 (0. 106)- 12.337 (0. 162
composed of skilled users and with an estimated size of 16%of the overall population, gets the highest satisfaction from content
as the distance between content and user levels increases, enjoyment of content decreases significantly. This is especially true for tasks with complexity above the consumer†s expe
game, we found that content at the middle of each expansion is usually the most valuable to users,
when users have more time to play the game 31 Low-Skill Users High-Skill Users
Parameter Segment 1 Segment 2 Segment 3 Segment 4 Base Intercepts Nonmembers â 00-5. 482 (0. 488)- 10.0585 (0. 341)- 5. 1381 (0. 309)- 7. 077 (0. 331
value, to those of consumers who decided not to join a group of other users.
that collaboration across users within groups is prominent, with more experienced users frequently helping novice users to engage with more demanding content
Finally, the competitive eï €ect is significant for all segments, but especially so for the two skilled
are commonly below the average expertise level of other users 5. 2. 3 State Dependence and Aging of Content
potentially, as uncommon users of the product, perceive almost no aging of the product over time
average experience level of the user population in our data set We observe that the evolution of experience is significantly diï €erent across segments,
pattern but with a main diï €erence that these users progress much faster, in part justified by their
more serious users do not have new challenging content to improve experience and stop using the
Evolution of the user level, the mean level of the user community, and mean of the content
of match between user expertise and content complexity, denoted as the cost of completing a task
users, product usage of simpler content is motivated primarily by intrinsic preferences, while group interactions and future benefits of gaining experience from using the product are relatively more
and, even though users in our sample are experienced and familiar with the product, there is a clear distinction between innovators and laggards, in terms of timing of usage and of response to
as users become more experienced and enjoy more demanding content, they join a group of users to collab
-orate and share the enjoyment of content. Segment 3 is the fastest to form groups, while the other
product life, more than 70%of users enjoy being part of a product community, reflecting reduced heterogeneity in the consumer population.
-plexity by simulating a change in the â€oedistance†between the expertise of a user and higher level
of engaging in social interactions between users. Social components in product usage are becoming very important for most categories,
as managers attempt to lead users to social media platforms to generate content and connect with other users with similar preferences
5. 4. 1 An Alternative Innovation Schedule: When Should Managers Launch New Con -tent Our approach can be used to provide insights about alternative scheduling of product updates.
participation from a large community of users or pace the introduction of new content to keep
by the share of active users. 25 The postponing of the last update leads to an initial drop in
1 and 3 of more highly skilled users In net terms, postponing the product update has a negative impact with overall participation
between a user expertise level li and the level of content complexity lj required by a task of higher
user and content. 26 This is a relevant set up as, on the one hand, more complexity leads to longer
users, the impact of increasing or decreasing the perceived diï culty of the game on their behavior is
negative eï €ects on later stages of the game because users consume content too fast.
In many product categories, companies facilitate social interactions between users, for example through the creation of online forums, public relations events,
members and where individual users can advertise their interests for groups To measure the eï €ect of an incentive to social interactions within our model,
any tool that facilitates in-game social interaction for all users impacts k1. Alternatively, our model
can quantify firm actions that specifically aï €ect more experienced users-such as making it easier
of the average level of users, while the lower panel reveals the percentage of participating users, for
both the actual and counterfactual cases. Overall, the decrease of 25%in k1 increases membership in
%increase in relative terms, indicating that users become more experienced with the game, are able to
making content accessible to users, either by lowering its diï culty or increasing social connections, has strong benefits to participation because,
the game has significant amounts of content that users never attempt, complemented with frequent updates.
blogs and newsgroups. ii Nearly a quarter of UK mobile phones users now have a Smartphone, with over 18 per cent using their devices to access social media sites or
36,483 Twitter users were active during the first debate 28,790 were active during the second debate. v Almost a
www. Fixmystreet. com is a website that allows users to easily report an issue with
users 2. Global knowledge sourcing and collaborative networks 3. Global challenges as a driver of innovation
users, using open source methods or crowd sourcing solutions. The view of innovation in the EU 2020 strategy risks being seen as somewhat top down
and omits many of the most exciting developments in the field such as user -centred innovation and open innovation.
or users and communities †but equally, some innovation developed by these sectors does not qualify as
front line staff to understand the needs of users and better tailor their services accordingly. There are also many organisations which
Ideas can come from many sources-citizens, service users communities, front line staff, other sectors or other countries.
ideas, competitions and so on) and ways of engaging citizens, users and others in the design and development of solutions
feedback loops from users and specialists 4. Sustaining. This is when the idea becomes everyday practice.
potential beneficiaries and users often inspired by anger, suffering or compassion); ) second, the development of those ideas into
•Collaboration †with users, front line staff and other stakeholders and partnerships with organisations from the private, public and
•User Led †design processes enable both potential end users and existing front line staff, among other specialists, to be a driving
•End Result Focused †by using user-centred design techniques that source untapped specialists, Participle are able to design services
based on in depth user research (using ethnographic research methods such as user-observation, video diaries and group work) and †indirect researchâ€
which explores the policy context and the current state of public service provision; gathering new insights and developing ideas from those insights
rapidly testing solutions and getting feedback from users and front line staff to refine the ideas
Evaluations of the portal show that roughly one third of users seeking information and advice on their health through Sundhed are reassured and
evaluations show that 91%of users consider that their personal information is safe as a result of the security measures used by the portal
and over 90%of users agreeing that M-PESA is a safe service to use.
With 70%of M-PESA users with at least one bank account as opposed to 40%of non-users, the
organisation has increased successfully the number of people using banking services, therefore making an important step towards greater financial
prosumption †that is, where users are also producers of services they consume †this is especially the case in areas such as health and care
wellbeing of its users and community cohesion. Other examples of time banking systems include the Degui Academy in Taiwan
research community under one roof to promote user-centred innovation Mindlab†s involvement of citizens and businesses in public-sector innovation
2. Learning about the users 3. Analysis 4. Idea and concept 5. Test of new concepts
new approached to user-centred innovation, drawing on experiences of business, design and social science As well as bringing together local residents and county council staff members
also seeks to build capacity for user-centred innovation across the council SILK uses the †triple-diamond†design approach to innovation
involves users, front-line staff, and stakeholders such as senior managers or elected councillors, in setting out what is required from a
through a user-centred approach to research, which places value on the ideas and experiences of residents
In addition to facilitating involvement from users, the initiative also enables accountability of the patenting process to the technical
users and so on. This knowledge is crucial in improving services and making government more accountable. Open models provide one approach for
Personal budgets involve users being allocated a budget to be used for ongoing care needs. They are based on the idea that individuals will be able to
and spent by the individual user 90 and personal budgets which councils administer according to the individual†s
of care, levels of satisfaction and empowering users. cxix One of the best examples from the UK is In Control, a UK based charity which
helps local authorities establish systems that give users greater financial autonomy over their own care. Currently 70,000 people in the UK receive
or coalitions of service providers and users, to 93 apply for small sums of money to develop concepts.
and user-led innovation, are highlighting the need for new metrics to measure innovation performance. cxlvi
clvi These also try to estimate what non-users might value, whether through †altruistic useâ€
and user participation. †See European commission, DG Enterprise & Industry, Special Business Panel (2009) Reinvent Europe through innovation:
Users SUPPLIERS Core Government DISTRIBUTION R&d Agents COMMERCE TRANSPORTÂ ANDÂ LOGISTICS 300â COMPANIES 10â Bâ
Users SUPPLIERS Core Government DISTRIBUTION R&d Agents COMMERCE TRANSPORTÂ ANDÂ LOGISTICS 300â COMPANIES 10â Bâ
involving users at every stage as well as experts, bureaucrats and professionals; designing platforms which make it easy to assemble project
combining ethnography, visualisation techniques from product design, user -involvement ideas from social movements, and commissioning methods
mobilising networks of users that were developed by the third sector in the 1960s and 1970s.
or users and communities †but equally, some innovation developed by these sectors does not qualify as social innovation
strength (for example, linking users to professionals) and conflicts are resolved (including battles with entrenched interests.
But other examples include user-led and peer research, based on the premise that people are placed best to
User -led research has developed especially amongst long term users of health and social care services. Service users are responsible for all stages
of the research process †from design, recruitment, ethics and data collection to data analysis, writing up, and dissemination.
One example is the independent, user-controlled network, Shaping Our Lives, which started as a research and development project and now works with a
wide range of service users across the UK 1 PROMPTS, INSPIRATIONS AND DIAGNOSES 19 13) Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) involves a range of techniques
such as interviews, mapping, focus groups and events to understand community views on particular issues. The aim is to engage local people
of users and better tailor services accordingly. In industry and commerce the capacity to collect
17) Feedback systems from front line staff and users to senior managers and staff. Feedback loops are a necessary precondition for learning
User feedback on service quality, including web-based models such as Patient Opinion and I Want Great care that hold service
18) Integrated user-centred data such as Electronic Patient Records in the UK, which, when linked through grid and cloud computing models
32) User and public pressure can force change. Politics remains the most powerful channel for pressure but feedback can also be organised
through many routes, from surveys and websites to user representation on management boards and committees
Ideas come from many sources, e g. citizens, service users, communities, front line staff, other sectors,
and engaging citizens, users and others in the design and development of solutions As we have mentioned elsewhere,
of interests †the users and beneficiaries of the innovation as well as the producers and suppliers.
37) User-led design. Users are placed often best to identify their own needs and come up with ideas about how best to meet them.
In practice much of what is called †user-led design†would be described better as †user engagement in designâ€, with designers and professionals still
playing key roles as orchestrators and facilitators 38) Redesigning services with users and producers such as the work
undertaken by design consultancies like IDEO, thinkpublic, Participle and Live/Work or the Hope Institute†s citizen teams formed around
public service improvements. One recent example is IDEO€ s work with the SPARC centre at the Mayo Clinic (see-plan-act-refine-communicate
39) Engagement of ex-users. The Arizona Department of Corrections has involved recent prisoners in designing programmes to help others
47) Starting with the user through user research and participant observation, including ethnographic approaches such as user/citizen
diaries, or living with communities and individuals to understand their lived worlds. SILK at Kent County Council, for example, used
and ideas for providing services to mainstream users. For example redesigning buildings and objects to be used more easily by people with
costs low, tangibility and feedback loops from users and specialists 81) Prototyping refers to the design of a working model of a product or
blind†methods so that the researchers don†t know which users are receiving the treatment and
of control, the team and relations with users are likely to have greater priority, and may in fact be the substance of a new social technology on
In principle, user and beneficiary representation on management boards can serve as a channel for new ideas from the
127) User orientation and autonomous work groups. Large commercial organisations have moved away from hierarchical organisations to
by the users/consumers and their requirements, translated through information and operational systems that highlight the degree to which
built up between a venture and its users and suppliers, and the relationships between a venture and its staff and volunteers.
to users and investors; to suppliers and distributors; and with its own staff, board and volunteers.
136) Systems for user feedback to keep users at the centre. Social ventures tend to rely on their idea to galvanise funders and users
They place their operational focus more on supply than demand. But 4 SUSTAINING 75 to ensure that the venture remains generative rather than static, users
should remain central †a service should know who they are and who is missing,
and accounting system, it requires a system of user relationships and feedback as part of its operational spine
services should start from the user, and that its diffusion should be approached from the perspective of users, not least because they are in many cases also co
-producers. We also argue that a distinction should be made between services where demand can be expressed in the market (for fair trade or green goods
159) User groups and their campaigns. User/consumer/citizen groups play a critical role as innovators and diffusers.
In health for example, the speed of adoption of new drugs can often be correlated with the strength
User groups create a demand for services, particularly from public authorities by spreading information and lobbying.
are tailored to the needs of service users. In the UK, this has prompted a series of developments including Local Area Agreements (LAAS) and
183) Personalised budgets involve users being allocated a budget to be used for ongoing care needs.
and spent by the individual user, and personal budgets which councils administer according to the individual†s wishes
local authorities establish systems that give users this type of financial autonomy over their own care.
in which users and originators can engage in the evaluation and adaption of innovation 191) Platforms give people the tools
try to estimate what non-users might value, whether through †altruistic use†(knowing someone else might like it;
226) User-oriented and user-generated metrics such as the †sousveys††surveys undertaken by citizens on services provided by the state †used
227) User Experience Surveys such as those now being introduced in the NHS which explore users†experience and emotions in relation to the
support for the user rather than the simple delivery of a standardised package. The idea has led to radical models for reshaping care for the
Formation of users and producers Users and citizens often need to play a part in the design and implementation
of new systems. They may require new skills and approaches (what the Infrastructure for green transport-plug-in points for hybrid cars in San
249) Mutual help and mentoring by users. The tradition of voluntary coaching (in sports clubs,
foundations try hard to connect emerging ideas to potential buyers and users But these tend to be small scale and ad hoc.
user-centred innovation A day in the life. In order to promote user-centred innovation, Mindlab undertake ethnographic research,
including video diaries, to understand the everyday needs and ideas of Danish citizens better. Image courtesy of
which provide user -generated information such as ehow and Netmums. Netmums provides information on a variety of local resources †including child-friendly
enables users (mainly children) to design their own Lego sets. The designs are collated together in the Lego gallery
by other users. There are also a number of clothing companies and boutique design agencies which have adopted this †design and orderâ€
Users make their resources (time, disk-storage etc available to other users for free. This includes file sharing services
such as Napster, and open-source software such as the Linux operating system, the Mozilla Firefox browser, and the Apache web server.
319) Circuits of information from users to front line staff and senior managers. The flow of information from the periphery to the centre is
320) User engagement has been helped both by user groups themselves and by professional organisations providing methods for engaging citizens
Users play an important role in providing new insights into user needs sometimes playing direct roles in redesigning services.
and interacting with service users;(iv) process innovations (new internal procedures and organisational forms; and (v) system innovations (including governance structures
engaging beneficiaries and users in decision making processes. Here are a few ways how 422) User and beneficiary representation on management boards
One example is Room 13, which started in Scotland in 1994 when a group of students set up their own visual arts studio.
423) Innovation assessments commissioned to assess the views of users and beneficiaries, and whether the innovation itself and the process
M-PESA now has half a million users in London in addition to its users in east Africa
451) Corporate not-for-profit management of social provision such as Academy Schools in the UK and Charter schools in the US
providing others, selling information on users and so on. 1 In the field of open -source software, they are also creating new terms and conditions for the use
For users, one of the main challenges now is to navigate through the wide ocean of information available online.
There has been marked a development of users becoming more engaged in the production of services. In the words of Alvin Toffler, they have become
†prosumers††producers as well as users of services. They are playing a critical role in areas from health and education to recycling and the energy
517) Users as producers †such as the Expert Patients Programme, which teaches users to manage their own health conditions more effectively
and be more confident in their own care. Teachers on the programme are themselves living with long-term conditions.
Older people are seen as both users and providers in the system, for example, visiting their peers for friendship
525) User groups such as rail user groups or park user associations (for example, the Clissold Park User Group) that become champions for new
ways of organizing services Social movements Social movements have been the source of major waves of social innovations
over the past 40 years †notably in food, the environment, healthcare, and in transforming the social relations around gender,
Clissold Park User Group 207 Clore Social Leadership Programme 177 College of Health 116 Commons 76;
Users 31,62, 69,74, 85,89-90,92, 105 115,139, 148,173, 204,205 Vancity 188 Vauban, Freiburg 75,76, 108,117
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