Open innovation in creative industries. Part II: The case of Threadless

6th ModTech International Conference - Modern Technologies in Industrial Engineering

Avasilcai, S.^1 ; Bujor, A.^1

Department of Engineering and Industrial Management, Technical University Gheorghe Asachi of Iasi, Blvd. Mangeron, No. 29, Iasi

700050, Romania^1

关键词: Case study approach;    Creative industries;    E-commerce websites;    Interactive development;    On-line communities;    Organizational cultures;    Product innovation;    Recent researches;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/400/6/062002/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/400/6/062002

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

The digital world is playing a significant role today, as evidenced by recent research on digital marketing and virtual consumers. They have revealed the increasing involvement of consumers / stakeholders in all aspects of marketing processes, from product innovation to print and broadcast advertising. Consequently, switching from a traditional business model to a business model based on open innovation is a major step taken by many companies that have understood its importance for the ever development of their businesses, focusing on the 3C: co-creation, crowdsourcing, and community. Nowadays companies agree that for product/service development the communities, the crowds, the stakeholders represent the driving force, the main engine. In order to achieve an interactive development of the product / service companies delegate the main tasks to the crowd (people empowerment). Based in Chicago since 2000 when first opened, Threadless is an online community of artists and an e-commerce website that started as a T-shirt company but has managed to expand into a full lineup of apparel. The company is constantly searching to find new ways to offer creative minds different and more possibilities / opportunities to get their art seen, to succeed, and to achieve their ultimate goal: to make great together, to help art unknowns to become art totally-knowns. The purpose of this paper is to present the importance of the creativity as a source for open-innovation, according to the critical analysis presented in the first part of this research about open innovation in creative industries. This paper emphasizes the relevance of open innovation methods for company's growth, establishing innovative organizational culture, idea generation from creative assignments, enhancement of creativity and free will. In order to emphasize the key features of open innovation in creative industries with the accent on design sector, there will be used a case study approach. Based on the analysis of Threadless platform the following will be illustrated: the use of open innovation in company's interaction with the clients, open innovation process within design stage of product development, different actors implication in co-design, the relevance of their creativity, and designers' future development from personal and business point of views.