Customer integration with virtual communities. Case study: the online community of the largest regional newspaper in Austria

Virtual communities were promoted as "the" business model in ebusiness. Nowadays only a few communities are economically successful. Although revenues expected through advertising or subscriptions are low, communities are still a perfect place to "listen to the custumer". By integrating community members into market research and product development activities companies can get efficient support to improve products for more customer satisfaction as well as to identify new sources of revenue. The case study of "Kleine Zeitung Online" provides a good example of how new ideas and streams of revenue can be generated by listening to the community. Findings show that community members and especially the identified lead users are very willing to provide the necessary information to develop new products for their community, which leads also to new revenue possibilities.