What is it about?
How can we grasp the space between society, brands and technology? One option is to explore peer-to-peer-problem solving communities (P3-communities). Such organically grown groups are collectives of technology users who principally communicate online. It is a type of online community increasingly used by brands for co-creation. Users of the Fairphone brand usually in some way are committed to social change in the sphere of production and consumption of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The smartphone brand Fairphone is an example of a company that helps its users to use ICTs in a more responsible way. Research shows online activity within the Fairphone brand community stands in relation to on-site sustainable practices. Earlier research had shown that social group membership boosts self-esteem. Users of the Fairphone brand may be few, yet they are committed to foster social change in their social environment. Their social group membership boosts self-esteem so that they adjust their own actions towards more sustainable practices.
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Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Findings show that the social strategies of online groups can help users adjust individual use practices of Smartphones and related applications towards more sustainability. The Management of online brand communities can support transformations towards sustainable markets, by ensuring that, when new practices are adopted, they are maintained
Perspectives
Understanding technology cultures of hackers and fixers, as well as the lifestyle of health and sustainability - the Fairphone brand community blends these different groups. Writing this article taught me a great deal. During the peer-review-process somebody wrote that I was citing to much literature. To me, this article marks a Development from writing an ethnographic monograph to a netnographic article.
Frithiof Svenson
Carl von Ossietzky Universitat Oldenburg
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Smartphone crises and adjustments in a virtual P3 community – doing sustainability oriented smartphone consumption, Journal of Marketing Management, July 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/0267257x.2018.1464495.
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Resources
Smartphone-enabled social change: Evidence from the Fairphone case?
Sustainable Consumption and de-growth of Smartphones is possible.
Managing brands and customer engagement in online brand communities
Contrasts perspectives of the consumers and organizations involved in online brand communities.
Exploring Consumptive Moments of Value‐Creating Practice in Online Community
Practice‐theoretical lens conceptualizes the consumptive moments of online community practices and explores how they shape different value outcomes.
Advent of Practice Theories in Research on Sustainable Consumption: Past, Current and Future Directions of the Field
This review takes stock on practice theoretical perspectives on sustainable consumption
Contrasting Brand Community Support for Sustainable Smartphone Practices of Charging and Managing Battery Power
Charging and managing the battery power of smartphones has energy impacts on a global scale. In studies of social practices the immediate material arrangement, i.e. the smartphone product design, itself has received less attention. Human-battery interaction and its link to a specific design becomes crucial in the light of technology brands' sustainability marketing. For some time, closed product designs in smartphones fabricated a link between battery life and the life span of the smartphone. In order to adjust daily habits towards conservation of battery life people need to be engaged. The aim of this paper is to give insights into which engagements peer-to-peer problem solving communities transport with regard to battery practices. Battery narratives reported by online brand community members were investigated through netnographic procedures. The results of the descriptive inference indicate that sustainability-oriented interactions in brand communities vary. The engagements towards energy saving are more wide spread in closed product design contexts than in the design for repair context. Keywords: Online community, Sufficiency, Sustainability Marketing, human-battery interaction.
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