Virtual Customer Communities for New Product Development Micha Hernandez van Leuffen - Vrije Universiteit, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

The questions within the survey deal with the following fictional situation. So-
nia is a mobile telecommunications company designing and producing mobile
handsets. For their next-generation cell phone they would like to involve their
customers in their development process. As such they have set up an online
virtual community, www.sonia-next.com where a select group of customers can
submit their ideas and designs relating to Sonia’s new handheld. Various tech-
nological features are offered within the online environment to the participants
of the virtual community in order to give them the means to help Sonia in creat-
ing their next-generation mobile phone. This includes features such as electronic
whiteboards, messaging features, discussion features, but also rating and rank-
ing mechanisms that enable users to rate other virtual community members’
ideas and designs pertaining to the new mobile phone. You have been selected
to participate in this virtual customer community and help Sonia in creating
their next-generation cellphone.