Redesigning business models to leverage members’ participation in online communities: The case of the French gambling industry

Abstract

With the spread of information and communication technologies, online communities
have emerged as new type of key stakeholder for firms. These online gathering spaces provide customers with new ways to interact with companies and their own peers. While online
communities are acknowledged as a source of value for their members and host firms,
leveraging them remains a challenge for companies, and mean redesigning their business
model. Based on a case study of the French gambling industry, we show that through their
participation, members of online communities bring new resources and competences, which
firms can use to reshape the mechanisms of value creation and capture. We highlight two
execution mechanisms for redesigning a business model around online communities and
leveraging such communities to enhance firms’ performance.