Elina Annanperä
University of Oulu
Elina Annanperä is a doctoral student and a project researcher in University of Oulu, Department of Information Processing Science. She is focusing her thesis work on Collaborative service design and involving the different stakeholders in the service design process. In her work in project she has also worked on social media and intelligent environments services. Elina Annanperä is a member of M-Group research group in the University of Oulu, Department of Information Processing Science.
Using Social Media for Business to Business Service Innovation – A Case Study
Elina Annanperä1, Jouni Markkula1, Paula Kuusipalo-Määttä2
- 1Department of Information Processing Science, University of Oulu, P.O.Box 3000, FI-90014 University of Oulu {elina.annanpera, jouni.markkula}@oulu.fi
- 2VR-Group ltd., P.O.Box 488, 00101 Helsinki Paula.Kuusipalo-Maatta@vr.fi
Abstract
Companies are increasingly getting involved in social media to communicate and collaborate with their customers, even for innovating new services. However, successful utilization of social media and the features of the available platforms for service innovation present challenges that require investigation. In this paper we present a case study with the purpose to explore application of social media for collaborative service innovation in business to business context. The case study consists of two consecutive pilots where the case company’s business customers were engaged in service innovation using social media as the communication and collaboration channel. The study proves the feasibility of social media for this purpose. Social media can be successfully used for business to business service innovation, but it requires careful selection of suitable social media platform and tailoring of its functionality, as well as associated innovation processes and practices, to correspond this purpose in the given environment.