BRAND COMMUNITIES IN AN OPEN INNOVATION ENVIRONMENT

The present articles as an explorative study adds to the growing stream of brand community and innovation-focused literature in two ways. First, it attempts to summarize and structure academia's understanding of brand communities and link it to the topic of open innovation and customer co-creation. Second, the qualitative research in the form of expert interviews adds to the body of knowledge by targeting issues and questions that might he relevant and interesting for further studies. Especially topics that have been neglected by brand community researchers so far are touched, identifying potential opportunities for marketing practitioners.