Self-production in an upcycling online community: shared knowledge, collaborative ideas and creation of value
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Self‑production in an upcycling online community: shared knowledge, collaborative ideas and creation of value Carla Coppola1 · Agostino Vollero2 · Francesca Conte2 · Alfonso Siano2 Received: 10 February 2020 / Accepted: 7 May 2020 © Società Italiana Marketing 2020
Abstract Digital communication technologies have enlarged information and knowledge opportunities for consumers to self-produce objects in a number of different industries (electronics, fashion, cosmetics, etc.). The paper aims at analyzing how upcycling practices (i.e. self-production that reuses products in the end stages of consumption) are discussed and elaborated in online communities and how these practices are linked to the knowledge sharing, collaboration and co-creation among community members, thus generating self- and co-creation of value. Using a netnographic approach applied to an Italian online community, findings reveal that the upcycling represents a well-established practice driven by several different motivations (economical, environmental, social, etc.) that determine how these empowered consumers carry out these practices in concrete terms. By discussing about their self-production practices, community members share the same language, rituals and the use of specific tools to inform their behavior, thus developing communal ideas, principles and (environmental) pro-social values. Theoretically, the paper proposes a model of interaction between online communities and self-production that shows how upcycling practices, generally conceptualized as individualistic behaviors, are upgraded and become collective in online communities through knowledge sharing and creative collaboration. In terms of managerial implications, the paper develops insights about how different types of upcyclers can be marketed in different ways by addressing them with specific offerings. Keywords Upcycling · Self-production · Online communities of practice · Knowledge sharing · Creative collaboration · Netnography
* Carla Coppola [email protected] 1
Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
2
Department of Political and Communication Sciences (POLICOM), University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
Italian Journal of Marketing
1 Introduction Self-production practices (Troye and Supphellen 2012) are widely spreading in different fields of activity, in addition to co-production and value co-creation processes (Xie et al. 2008; Payne et al. 2008; Cova et al. 2011). Through these practices, consumers are assuming an even more active role within the definition of brand products (Troye and Supphellen 2012; Cova et al. 2013). The spread of the self-production phenomenon is demonstrated by both the growth of specialized platforms—like Etsy, an online marketplace designed to sell unique products (whose gross merchandise value is nearly 5 billion dollar in the 2019)—and the increasing popularity worldwide of Makers Faires, events specifically dedicated to self-producers and their inventions. Thanks to new
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