Business Model Innovation of IT-Enabled Customer Participating in Value Co-Creation Based on the Affordance Theory: A Case Study

Yanli Guo,Yi Zhu,Jianbin Chen

doi:10.3390/su13105753

Abstract

This study uses the structured–pragmatics–situational case study approach to explore the intrinsic mechanism of enterprise digital enablement using affordance theory and how traditional enterprises enable customers to participate in value co-creation through information technology, then realize business model innovation and maintain continuous consumption. The study revealed the following: (1) Product affordance drives customers’ original willingness to engage in value co-creation in four dimensions: economy, reliability, uniqueness, and selectivity; (2) The visibility, convenience, association, and persistence of the platform affordance enhance users’ abilities to engage in value co-creation; (3) The interaction of affordance, structural enablement, and digital enablement drives the interaction of willingness and capability to engage in value co-creation; and (4) User participation behaviors in value co-creation can be divided into three dimensions (informational, actionable, and attitudinal participation)and four stages. The findings explain how traditional enterprises use IT enablement to promote business model innovation of customer participation in value co-creation and enrich the theories of digital enablement. The conclusions reveal the managerial implications of the ways, paths, and mechanism of business model innovation by IT enabling customers to participate in value co-creation.

Highlights

Accepted: 17 May 2021The digital economy is a new, quite quickly developing social and economic phenomenon; some scholars have defined the digital economy as an economic activity of people focusing on digital features [1]
This paper mainly focuses on the following questions: How can business model innovation based on value co-creation through it enablement for traditional enterprises be promoted? How do digital technologies promote value co-creation? How does IT enable value creators: its ways, means, paths, and mechanism? In order to resolve the above issues, this study used the structured–pragmatics–situational (SPS) case study approach, which is based on affordance theory [11,12], to explore how traditional enterprises enable their customers to participate in value co-creation through information technology, and what capabilities have been enabled to facilitate value co-creation and achieve business model innovation based on digital transformation
The findings reveal that how traditional enterprises use IT enablement to promote business model innovation of customer’s participating in value co-creation

Summary

Introduction

Accepted: 17 May 2021The digital economy is a new, quite quickly developing social and economic phenomenon; some scholars have defined the digital economy as an economic activity of people focusing on digital features [1]. Traditional enterprises have accelerated their digital transformation to carry out business model innovation to adapt to the development of this new economic form [2,3]. From the perspective of market orientation, business model innovation can be defined as a kind of innovation through the design of unique business systems, developing new channels or radically changing the rules of competition to meet the potential needs of consumers and to realize the rapid growth of customer value [4]. Business model innovation can be understood as the behavioral logic of enterprise creation and transmission of value for stakeholders [5], focusing on redefining the value proposition of customers and partners [3]

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Conclusion