• Describe and classify relevant innovation strategies
• Describe and develop co-creation capabilities
• Identify possibilities for creating quick and inexpensive prototypes to test and evaluate ideas
• Identify and evaluate methods for community building and management and show ability to apply these to praxis
• Synthesize the above to a project centered on the digital platform YouTube

Organizing Growth: Innovative Communities and Digital Environments

Innovation thrives in industries where the costs of creating and testing new products are low. Digital platforms such as YouTube offer the possibility of testing out entertainment ideas at a very low cost. Creators of YouTube channels, such as, Crashcourse, Epic Rap Battles of History, Good Mythical Morning, and Will It Blend?, have achieved both fame and economical success by creating novel entertainment or educational concepts and by building a community around their products. In this course, we investigate the later stages of the innovation process related to digital platforms/environments. We focus, among other things, on the process of community building, ecosystem development and user-involvement as growth strategies. We learn to translate knowledge of these processes into practice by applying them to the development of a YouTube channel. During the course we also advance the necessary skills related to co-creation and to identifying possibilities for generating value for groups of people.
 
The course will unfold over six weeks, with 4- to 5-hour sessions meeting once a week. After being introduced to relevant business models and to co-creation skills, students will form teams and engage in processes of user involvement and ecosystem expansion. Using different approaches to community building, they will develop their brand and product over time, refining their business model in relation to their growing community. Students will also be trained in the use of visual tools for pitching.

Expected literature (subject to change):

Austin, R., & Devin, L. (2003). Artful Making: What Managers need to know about how artists work . New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Isaacs, W. (1999). Dialogue and the art of thinking together . New York: Currency.

Bakioglu, BS (2016). Exposing convergence: YouTube fan labor, and anxiety of cultural production in lonelygirl15. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 1-21.

Burwell, C., & Miller, T. (2016). Let's Play: Exploring literacy practices in an emerging video game paratext. E-Learning and Digital Media , 13 (3-4), 109-125.

Carroll, S. (2008). The Practical Politics of Step-Stealing and Textual poaching: YouTube, Audio-Visual Media and Contemporary Swing Dancers Online. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies , 14 (2), 183-204.

Checchinato, F., Disegna, M., & Gazzola, P. (2015). Content and Feedback Analysis of YouTube Videos: Football Clubs and fans as Brand Communities. Journal of Creative Communications , 10 (1), 71-88.

Cunningham, S. (2012). Emergent Innovation through the coevolution of Informal and Formal Media Economies. Television & New Media , 13, 415-430.

Cunningham, S., Craig, D., & Silver, J. (2016). YouTube, multichannel networks and the accelerated evolution of the new screen ecology. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies , 22 (4)

Chia, R. (1996). Teaching paradigm shifting in management education: University business schools and the entrepreneurial imagination. Journal of Management Studies , 33 (4), 409-428.

Cocker, HL, & Cronin, J. (2017). Charismatic authority and the YouTuber. Marketing Theory , 147,059,311,769,202.

Goldsmith, B., Cunningham, S., & Dezuanni, M. (2017). Screen production for education: digital disruption in an "ancillary" market. Media International Australia , 162 (1), 65-77.

Hanlon, P. (2006) Primal Branding :  Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company, and Your Future , New York: Free Press.

Hennig-Thurau, T., Malt House, EC, Friege, C., Gensler, S., Lobschat, L., Rangaswamy, A., & Skiera, B. (2010). The Impact of New Media on Customer Relationships. Journal of Service Research , 13 ((3)), 311-330

Isaacson, K., & Looman, WS (2017). Strategies for Developing Family Nursing Communities of Practice Through Social Media. Journal of Family Nursing , 23 (1), 73-89.

Jackson, W., Park, B., Toscani, M., & Hermes-DeSantis, E. (2015). Analysis of Social Media Interactions Between Pharmaceutical Companies and Consumers: The Power of the "Like ''. Therapeutic Innovation & Regulatory Science , 49 (3), 387-391.

Johnston, J. (2017). Subscribing two Sex Edutainment. Television & New Media , 18 (1), 76-92.

Postigo, H. (2014). The socio-technical architecture of digital labor: Converting play into YouTube money. New Media & Society , 18 (2), 332 -349.

Thibeault, MD, & Evoy, J. (2011). Building Your Own Musical Community: How YouTube, Miley Cyrus, and the Ukulele Can Create a New Kind of Ensemble. General Music Today , 24 (3), 44-52.

Thorpe, H., & Ahmad, N. (2015). Youth, action sports and political agency in the Middle East: Lessons from a grass roots parkour group in Gaza. International Review for the Sociology of Sport , 50 (6), 678-704.

Waldron, J. (2012). YouTube fanvids, forums, vlogs and blogs: Informal music learning in a convergent on-and offline music community. International Journal of Music Education , 31 (1), 91-105.