User-led innovation: a new framework for co-creating business and social value

This research seeks to develop a coherent framework for understanding the multiple theories and social practices associated with the emerging field of ‘user-led innovation’. It presents a synthesis of current user-led thinking which is informed by interviews with thought leaders, lead users and insights from the secondary literature. It uses this to develop a model of an emerging ‘User-led Services Ecology’, and explores its possible impact on CRC stakeholders. The research investigates how user-led practices generate business and social value through a major case study of the virtual world Second Life. It also canvasses a number of pathways for organisations to leverage the participation of their audiences, customers and citizens, in the interest of co-creating new services, media and knowledge. [from Research Objectives]