• Describe and classify innovation strategies relevant to a given project
• Describe and develop co-creation capabilities mentioned in the course literature
• Identify possibilities for creating quick and inexpensive prototypes/minimum viable products to test and evaluate ideas
• Identify and evaluate methods for community building and management mentioned in the course literature and show ability to apply these to praxis
• Demonstrate the above through analysis of the engagement in a project centered on the digital platform YouTube

Organizing Growth – Community Building and Co-Creation

In this course, we investigate how to manage growing organizations. We focus, among other things, on the process of community building, both internally in the organization and externally among customers and other stakeholders, ecosystem development and user-involvement as growth strategies. During the course we also advance the necessary skills related to co-creation and to identifying possibilities for generating value for groups of people.  We learn to translate knowledge of these processes into practice by applying them to the development of a YouTube channel.

Because the cost of creating and testing a new YouTube channel is low, working with YouTube offers a unique opportunity for students to gain practical experience with innovation processes involving quick, iterative prototyping and co-creation. Because YouTube is inherently a community-based platform, working with YouTube also offers students an opportunity to gain practical experience with community building and user involvement. 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.

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.

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. p. 161-173
• 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.
• Bohm, D. (1996) On Dialogue, London: Routledge
• Boyd & Nowell 2014 Psychological sense of community - a new construct for the field of management, Journal of Management Inquiry, 23(2), 107-122
• Burgess J and Green J (2009) The entrepreneurial vlogger: participatory culture beyond the professional-amateur divide. In: Vonderau P, Snickars P and Burgess G (eds) The YouTube Reader. Stockholm: National Library of Sweden, pp. 89–107.
• 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.
• Cocker, Hayley L, and Cronin, J. (2017.) “Charismatic Authority and the YouTuber.” Marketing Theory
• Craig, David, and Stuart Cunningham. 2017. “Toy Unboxing: Living in a(n Unregulated) Material World.” Media International Australia,
• Hanlon, Patrick (2006) Primalbranding: Create Zealots for Your Brand, Your Company, and Your Future, NY: Free Press, p.9-86
• Isaacs, W. 1999 Dialogue and the art of thinking together p. 79-176 + p. 233-299
• Isanski, B. (2010) Talking your way to happiness: Well-being is related to having less small talk and more substantive conversations, Psychological Science
• Kantor, D. (2012) Reading the room. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons
• Losada, M. & Heaphy, E. (2004) The role of positivity and connectivity in the performance of business teams: A nonlinear dynamics model, American Behavioural Scientist 47(6): 740-765
• Nath, D. (2009) Bilding trust and cohesiveness in a leadership team: A practitioner's perspective, Society for Organisational Learning online journal, vol. 9
• McQuarrie, E.F.,Miller, J. and Phillips, B.J. (2013) ‘The Megaphone Effect: Taste and Audience in Fashion Blogging’, Journal of Consumer Research 40(1): 136–58
• McQuarrie, Edward F., and Barbara J. Phillips. 2014. “The Megaphone Effect in Social Media: How Ordinary Consumers Become Style Leaders.” GfK Marketing Intelligence Review 6 (2): 16–20.
• 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.
• Goldsmith, B., Cunningham, S., & Dezuanni, M. (2017). Screen production for education: digital disruption in an "ancillary" market. Media International Australia , 162 (1), 65-77.
• 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.