Creating New Services Based on the Formation of a Strategic Community with Customers: A Case Study of Innovation Involving IT and Multimedia Technology in the Field of Veterinary Medicine

Abstract

This paper discusses the management processes for forming strategic communities by means of strategic partnerships between businesses and customers. It considers the introduction into these strategic communities of the knowledge and core competence of customers with a high degree of learning experience with respect to the products and services provided by the businesses. This creates new products and services and at the same time extends the results of the strategic communities to many other associated customers. The innovation of a telemedicine system in the field of veterinary medicine in Japan is taken as a case study. Here a strategic community of business and innovative customers developed new systems using IT and multimedia technology. The results from the strategic community were extended to many other related customers in a chain of community creation, and the new systems were widely proliferated throughout the whole of Japan.