Conference System, VII Research Workshop on Institutions and Organizations

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Collaborative Digital Architectures: a study of company-consumer networks in Brazil
Dora Kaufman

Last modified: 2012-09-13

Abstract


By connecting individuals, digital technologies allow them to take part in the creation of value, producing goods that are closer to their expectations and needs. When we draw a parallel with the media consumption in the contemporary society, in which the idea of non division between sender and receiver of information is practically a consensus, we note that, gradually, the same is happening between producer and consumer of goods and services. The procedures followed before a new launch include extensive consultations with potential customers, as well as the so called “product tests”. In a way, the complexity and extent of this scenario have already placed the consumer as part of the production process, in line with more informed consumers that have wide access to share experiences and references in their network of contacts.

Interactive models such as mass collaboration, crowdsourcing and open innovation have become potential alternatives to several companies in the creation of value and innovation; also a source of income or acknowledgment to many individuals. They can boost a new business or a new job, or simply include those individuals in a community. Old models of organization and innovation fail to deal with the level of agility, creativity and connectivity that the market demands to keep companies competitive in the current environment. Not even major companies can generate all the inputs required to develop their business, nor retain all talents within their organizational borders. However, network collaboration is of another nature, strategic, since it includes the consumer in every step of the decision making process of the organizations.

It is worth stressing that, assuming there is an evolutionary line between open innovation and mass collaboration practices, in the first case, companies still have some control of the production process, and, maybe more importantly, they still feel fairly protected from competition - even considering the dramatic impact caused by the opening of their R&D activities to the external world. Mass collaboration, with the inherent transparency of digital technologies, definitely breaks with both: there is a real loss of control and a feeling of vulnerability to the actions of competition. If we take online encyclopedia Wikipedia as a reference of collaborative network, the most reasonable finding is that the market is still far from this practice. The introduction of this model in the dominant market economy involves a paradigm shift.

In order to identify how this practice - in different levels and forms - has been absorbed by the Brazilian market and to reflect on the results based on theoretical knowledge, producing standards and references (typology), Atopos (Research Center on Digital Media – ECA/USP] designed a research in partnership with a pool of companies[1], sharing reflections along the process.

The methodology consists of four stages: stage of identification of the universe to be studied, network immersion stage, stage of research in the companies, and dialogic stage (interaction with collaborative architectures). The first two stages were completed and three types of interactive architectures were set: functional, participative and collaborative. We expect to develop a typology from the following elements among other: extension of the internal network connected to an external network; dominant architecture versus pilot project; internal culture versus collaborative culture; branding architecture; functional architecture; appropriation of social networks: public sphere versus private sphere; architecture regarding content in a product, service or process; centralized, decentralized or distributed network; collaboration among users, with or without mediation of the company; mediation of the company; flexibility of the production chain; appropriation of the value created; model for measurement of return; organization and operation of the architecture; infrastructure and management quality; and transparency.

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[1] Google, TetraPak, Itaú Bank, Abril Group, Serasa Experian, Tecnisa and Magazine Luiza

 


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