Promoting the early-adopter feedback process using a firm-initiated online community

There are many online communities in Korea. An online community is a group of people that primarily interact via the Internet rather than face-to-face. Many firms are using online communities for communicating with users. The research question we attempt to answer is how online communities can be utilized throughout the NPD process, especially by using an early adopter feedback system. We investigate three leading MP3 player manufacturers in Korea. The number of people in these communities is over 100,000. They use various methods of promoting communication with users.