How User‐centric Innovation is Affecting Stakeholder Marketing Strategies: Exploratory Findings from the Music Industry

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12326
• Date: 01 December 2019
• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Author: Michael Brennan,Jordan Robert Gamble,Rodney McAdam

How User-centric Innovation is Affecting

Stakeholder Marketing Strategies:

Exploratory Findings from the Music Industry

JORDAN ROBERT GAMBLE,

1

RODNEY MCADAM

2

and MICHAEL BRENNAN

2

1

Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

2

Ulster University,Belfast, UK

This paper empirically explores how user-centric innovation (UCI) in the music industry is affecting how key

stakeholder groups are approaching and developing their marketing (and associated management) strategies. The

three-stage interview-based research methodology consisted of 52 semi-structured in-depth interviews with UCI

experts and artistmanagers, as well as representatives frommajor record labels. The findings make foursubstantial

contributions to theory and practice in the interrelated fields of UCI, marketing and the music industry. First, they

provide practical and pragmatic insights for industry practitioners on how different UCI marketing approaches

are affecting their management strategies. Second, they take steps towards answering many of the identified gaps

in research and knowledge relating to the concept of UCI. Third, they present theoretical models as a foundation

for which new UCI marketing theory can be built upon. Last, they offer directions for future research to advance

our empirical findings.

Introduction

This paper empirically explores the role of user centric

innovation (UCI) as a catalyst for marketing-related

management strategies within the entertainment industry.

Goltz et al. (2015: 161) have recently stated that ‘firms

in the digital entertainment field have furthered this trend

[of consumer involvement] by outsourcing the innovation

process to theirnetworks of consumers’. Within this broad

field, the currentpaper will focus on the music industry, in

which turbulent industry changes and the involvement of

multiple users at various stages of the innovation process

make it an appropriate and useful context for exploring

UCI. Scholars have recently suggested that business

model innovation should aim to fulfil a marketing role

by uncovering new opportunities to meet consumer needs

and maintain competitiveness (Sinfield et al., 2012;

Najmaei, 2014; Ghezzi et al., 2015). Within the

innovation literature relating to these firms, UCI has

emerged as a key concept concerning innovation pull at

multiple stages of the production process (Hienerth,

2006; Bogers et al., 2010; Herstatt and Schweisfurth,

2014). Here, the organisation promotes or facilitates

participation and contributions from the end consumer

throughout the innovation process (Di Gangi and Wasko,

2009; Faulkner and Runde, 2009; Brabham et al., 2014).

Such user interactions vary in terms of degree of

involvement and control from the consumers. Examples

include: crowdsourced activity such as crowdfunding;

viral marketing; sponsored user-generated branding;

user-generated content (UGC); vigilante marketing; and

‘prosumer’marketing or consumer-driven marketing

campaigns (CMCs) (Muñiz and Schau, 2007; Bampo

et al., 2008; Konczal, 2008; Gamble and Gilmore, 2013).

UCI is not a new concept; it was initially discussed by

von Hippel in the 1970s (Von Hippel, 1976; Bogers

et al., 2010; Herstatt and Schweisfurth, 2014). However,

its significancefor management theory and practice is still

evident in the contemporary literature, as additional

radical types of innovation are being pursued due to

rapidly evolving consumer requirements (Baldwin et al.,

2006). They are also arguably being pursued due to more

interactive marketing approaches involving customer

interaction (Wright et al., 2012), in addition to the

diversification of technology services and platforms that

can enable customerinput (Sawhney et al., 2005; Laursen

and Salter, 2006 ; Schildhauer and Vos s, 2014; Ardito

et al., 2015). The literature suggests that a positive

Correspondence: Jordan Robert Gamble, Room LG28 DCU Business

School Dublin City University Collins Avenue Dublin,Ireland. E-mail

jordan.gamble@dcu.ie

DOI: 10.1111/emre.12326

©2018 European Academy of Management

European Management Review, Vol. 16, –, (2019)

1175 1193

approach to UCI would prove most beneficial for firmsin

terms of return o n investment, ma rketing and

innovativeness. This is based on the provision that they

consider a number of key influencing factors relating to

strategic management, resource allocation and creative

freedom (Di Gangi and Wasko, 2009; Hienerth and Lettl,

2011; Franke et al., 2016). The implications of UCI are

more far-reaching than merely the immediate firm; recent

studies suggest that they can also affect user communities

in terms of both unity and disruption (Gamble et al.,

2016), as well as other important facets such as the

broader community (Hienerth and Lettl, 2011) and

product life cycles (Parmentier and Mangematin, 2014).

Arvidsson (2008) advises that the inclination towards

UCI will almost certainly continue to rise in importance

in future, in view of the global reach of Internet access

and the continuing contraction of the division between

non-digital and digital products and services. This

standpoint is defended by Berthon et al.(2007)whocite

a positive relationship between the augmentation in

product digitisation/interconnectivity and the

enhancement in aptitude for consumer contributions.

Füller (2006) has also proposed that users represent a

promising supply of forthcoming innovation in

consequence of past, present and future actions: their

precedinginnovation endeavours; theirpresent innovation

capacities;and their compliance withfuture commitments.

Numerous scholarsare now conceding that users andtheir

communities will play a progressively more important

position in innovation across various industries and

markets (Payne et al., 2009; Piller et al., 2010; Norman

and Verganti,2014; Hau and Kang, 2016). It has also been

suggested that UCIs have developed into an essential

strategy for firms in relation to their sustainability

(Desouza et al., 2008); innovation progression (Janssen

and Dankbaar, 2008; Greer and Lei, 2012); closer

consumer relations (Jespersen and Buck, 2010); and

achieving best practice (Enkel et al., 2005).

The preceding discussion highlights the imperativeand

applicable nature of UCI in the current business

environment. It also underscores its inextricable

correlation to the varying technological backgrounds in

which it has been examined. In spite of this interest, the

phenomenon of UCI is not well understood (Bogers

et al., 2010; Dong and Wu, 2015) nor employed in either

policy or industry (Shah and Tripsas, 2007; Hienerth and

Lettl, 2011; Franke et al., 2016). There has been a lack

of empirical research concerning UCI in practice

(Morrison et al., 2000; Baldwin et al., 2006; Hienerth,

2006; Di Gangi and Wasko, 2009; Faulkner and Runde,

2009). Continuing debate regarding the managerial

purpose of UCI, and the reality that it has still not been

broadly established and appliedto legitimate management

strategies, provokes critical questions about our present

understanding of this concept. Specifically, it is largely

unknown how UCI is affecting key management strategy

areas such as marketing at the organisational level,

especially for stakeholders within dynamic and shifting

industries such as the creative and digital industries.

Consequently, contemporary studies have called for

further empirical research into a number of related topics

such as: the effects of consumer participation in virtual

communities (Dong and Wu, 2015); how consumer

marketing data from these communities can benefit

marketers (Füller, 2016); and how the marketing

implications of consumer empowerment signify a

challenge for marketing strategists (Pires et al., 2006). It

has become apparent that few research articles in the last

decade have provided a comprehensive overview of the

UCI literature from the perspective of how industry

stakeholders are affected by the phenomenon. The few

empirical investigations that have been carried out

recently have focused on more specialised areas within

UCI topics and have not developed wider theoretical

perspectives of the UCI concept.

The aim of this paper is to address these outstanding

gaps in the literature and contribute to this contemporary

body of UCI research.We will achieve this by empirically

exploring how distinct UCI marketing approaches are

affecting the development of marketing and related

management strategies for music industry stakeholders.

The decision to focus this study on the intersection

between UCI, marketing and other related aspects of

industry stakeholder management strategies is supported

by Verhoef et al. (2009: 38), who have proposed that

‘future researchshould seek to understandwhat marketing

and management strategies will optimize the brand

customer experience interaction’. Other authors support

this chosen research direction by acknowledging that

marketing activities reflect the emergent influence of

Internet and digital technologies on consumer behaviour

(Mahajan and Venkatesh, 2000; Bampoet al., 2008; Akar

and Topçu, 2011), especially in relation to user-centricity

in the music industry (Muñiz and Schau, 2007; Ho and

Dempsey, 2010; Gambleand Gilmore, 2013). Ultimately,

this paper aims to make four substantial contributions to

theory and practice in the interrelated fields of UCI,

marketing and the music industry. First, through the

fulfilment of its research questions, it will provide

practical and pragmatic insights for industry practitioners

on how different UCI marketing approaches are affecting

their management strategies. Second, it will take steps

towards answeringmany of the identified gaps in research

and knowledge relating to the concept of UCI. Third, it

will present theoretical models as a foundation for which

new UCI marketing theorycan be built upon. Last, it will

offer directions for future research to advance our

empirical findings.

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows.

First, a literature review of UCI from a marketing

J.R. Gamble et al.

©2018 European Academy of Management

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