Transforming an old economy company through strategic communities

This paper describes how established companies can create strategic business communities in order to usher in innovation. The paper focuses on the case of NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile telecommunications carrier, which has utilised strategic community management principles in its efforts to cultivate and expand the mobile Internet market in Japan. In doing so, new markets were created, in turn leading to further opportunities for NTT DoCoMo. The paper distinguishes between strategic communities and other organisational forms such as projects and communities of practice and discusses the advantages of each. It concludes with the assertion that strategic community management is an effective methodology aimed at strategic innovation by major enterprises. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.