Self-production in an upcycling online community: shared knowledge, collaborative ideas and creation of value

Abstract

Digital communication technologies have enlarged information and knowledge opportunities for consumers to self-produce objects in a number of different industries (electronics, fashion, cosmetics, etc.). The paper aims at analyzing how upcycling practices (i.e. self-production that reuses products in the end stages of consumption) are discussed and elaborated in online communities and how these practices are linked to the knowledge sharing, collaboration and co-creation among community members, thus generating self- and co-creation of value. Using a netnographic approach applied to an Italian online community, findings reveal that the upcycling represents a well-established practice driven by several different motivations (economical, environmental, social, etc.) that determine how these empowered consumers carry out these practices in concrete terms. By discussing about their self-production practices, community members share the same language, rituals and the use of specific tools to inform their behavior, thus developing communal ideas, principles and (environmental) pro-social values. Theoretically, the paper proposes a model of interaction between online communities and self-production that shows how upcycling practices, generally conceptualized as individualistic behaviors, are upgraded and become collective in online communities through knowledge sharing and creative collaboration. In terms of managerial implications, the paper develops insights about how different types of upcyclers can be marketed in different ways by addressing them with specific offerings.