Abstract
In the current highly interconnected modern world, the role of consumers has changed substantially due to their active collaboration with companies in product and process innovation. Specifically, consumer participation has become key to the development of successful products and services, as companies have come to rely more and more on consumers' opinion as a source of innovative ideas and brand value. However, whereas existing research has focused on identifying the different elements involved in consumers' co-creation, there is still the need to comprehend better this complex mechanism by integrating distinct dimensional insights. With an integrative review of research into three important perspectives, one nurturing from the Service-Dominant logic, another one based on the information and communication technologies (ICTs) platforms, and (the ethical values-driven) Marketing 3.0 paradigm, this article proposes a conceptual framework in which consumers' ethical values and transcendent motivations play an important role in encouraging their engagement in co-creation activities. In this connection, and with consumers increasingly embracing the need to fulfill a social and ethical function in society, the co-creation process is here comprehended as a means to emphasize the social and moral aspects of co-creation. This article also identifies the important, supportive role of the Marketing 3.0 paradigm and Web 3.0 tools to initiate the co-creation process, as well as the important valuable benefits attained by both companies and consumers after consumers engage in this process. Importantly, these benefits are highlighted to increase when ethical products are the object of these co-creation activities. All these insights have notable implications for both research and managerial practice.
Highlights
In the recent times value co-creation has emerged as a major strength of companies to remain and gain competitiveness (Zwass, 2010)
Defined as a holistic management strategy focused on bringing distinct agents together to produce mutually valued outcomes (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004), this is increasingly utilized by companies as a source of corporate reputation, brand value, Consumer Co-creation and Transcendent Motives and competitive advantage (Cova and Dalli, 2009)
In this paper we address an emerging topic in the marketing and consumer behavior literature, so this method could help substantially to bring into light new perspectives in our understanding on both antecedents and positive effects of consumers’ engagement in co-creation activities
Summary
In the recent times value co-creation has emerged as a major strength of companies to remain and gain competitiveness (Zwass, 2010). Interactions are part of the modern, global era, which are greatly favored by ICTs, in turn, contributing to foster consumers’ active and valuable collaboration with companies in product and process innovation Both perspectives are critically formative of the existing body of research, in the last times some studies (see Payne et al, 2008; Edvardsson et al, 2011) have discussed the need to introduce new theories to better understand the consumer’s cocreation process. Limitations of our study, and avenues for future research are outlined
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