Virtual Support Communities

• Net Worth: Shaping Markets When Customers Make the Rules by John Hagel III and Marc Singer - Buy
  Net Worth is the follow-up to Net Gain and examines the role of the infomediary.† These concepts are relevant to the Multi-Vendor Support Strategy Team and the Support Futures Team.
  
  "No one ever said consumerism was easy. At one end, the poor consumer faces a bewildering array of goods and services. On the other, vendors contend with a diverse and fragmented marketplace that makes finding the right set of customers akin to finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. And in between are the billions misspent on muffed purchases and broken marketing campaigns that serve only to stuff mailboxes and alienate the very customers that vendors are trying to attract. The rise of e-commerce has only intensified the problem by offering consumers even greater choice and vendors more competition. John Hagel and Marc Singer think they've got a better idea, and in Net Worth, they present an online scenario that would end this chaos and give both customers and vendors what they really want."
  — Amazon.com
  
  "At the heart of Hagel and Singer's solution is the "infomediary" that sits between the customer and vendor. For the consumer, the infomediary acts as a trustworthy agent who knows the needs and habits of the client. For the vendor, the infomediary is the holy grail of consumer behavior, a marketer's dream. The infomediary brokers client information to vendors in exchange for goods and services for the consumer. The result? Happy consumers, satisfied marketers, and a very lucrative business model that awaits those entrepreneurs and companies that are bold enough to embrace the idea. The authors painstakingly outline the challenges and opportunities of developing an infomediary business and go as far as to peg the potential market cap of a dominant player at $20 billion by its fifth year of operation. While the idea of software agents is nothing new, Hagel and Singer may be breathing new life into the idea at just the right time. And even if infomediaries never arise, following the thinking of Hagel and Singer is well worth the price of admission. For marketers, managers, entrepreneurs, and just about anyone who thinks about e-commerce. Highly recommended."
  — Harry C. Edwards
• Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities by John Hagel III & Arthur G. Armstrong - Buy
  The Multi-Vendor Support Strategy outlines a framework for a virtual support community. This book by Hagel and Armstrong explores the concepts of virtual communities and legitimizes the concepts we have outlined for the support community! A must read for anyone interested in where the Multi-Vendor Support Strategy will take the support industry.
  
  "Building relationships with customers has been a buzz phrase in many business circles for years. Now John Hagel and Arthur Armstrong declare that's not enough. They make a strong case that business success in the very near future will depend on using the Internet to build not just relationships, but communities. The payoff, they maintain, will be phenomenal customer loyalty and high profits. But, they warn, this race will definitely go to the swift. Here's a cyberspace book that could make your business future. Not everyone agrees with Hagel and Armstrong, but with stakes so high they deserves a serious reading."
  — Amazon.com
  
  "The book that is the current rage of the Internet marketing community--NET GAIN: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities by John Hagel and Arthur Armstrong--puts it this way: 'The appearance of the global computer network has set in motion an unprecedented shift in power from the producers of goods and services to the customers who buy them.'"
  — David Warsh, The Boston Globe, April 5, 1998
  
  "Hagel is a fountain of concepts that are being put into practice all over the Web. In 1997, his book Net Gain (co-authored by Arthur G. Armstrong) suggested how noncommercial Web communities could use content, chat, and bulletin boards to promote e-commerce."
  — Business Week, September 27, 1999
• Co-opetition: 1. A Revolutionary Mindset That Redefines Competition and Cooperation; 2. The Game Theory Strategy That's Changing the Game of Business by Brandenburger & Nalebuff
  Co-opetition introduces some very interesting ways to think about and evaluate a company's relationship to others in the market place. It introduces game theory and the "value net" as tools to help companies assess market position. These concepts and tools are relevant to the Multi-Vendor Support Strategy Team as well as the Support Futures Team.
• The Death of Competition: Leadership and Strategy in the Age of Business Ecosystems by James F. Moore
  This book draws parallels between business strategy and ecosystems in nature. It talks about the importance of recognizing the bigger picture roles companies play as part of an ecosystem. Relationships are critical to the health of a market place and the health of the market place is a function of the health of the relationships. The concepts in this book are relevant to the Multi-Vendor Support Strategy Team as well as the Support Futures Team.