Co-Creation and Value Creation: A Basis for Producer-Consumer Synergy

Background To The Study

Co-creation makes up that initiative of organizational management initiative, or form of economic strategy which brings different parties together such as the firm and its customers to produce a valued outcome mutually. The process elicits the contribution of new ideas from the customers which is subsequently inculcated as a blend of new ideas to the organization. The Value is co-created when the customer uses his personal experiences in the firm’s product-service proposition–to create value best suited for the customer’s utility and which provides greater value for the firms product-service investment in the form of increased revenue, new knowledge, profitability and superior brand loyalty and value. Scholars C. K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy (2000) Harvard Business Review article, “Co-Opting Customer Competence”. They defined co-creation as “The collective creation of value by the firm and its customer; allowing the customer to inculcate their service experience to create the value which suit them” (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004, p. 8). Co-creation processes entail two fundamental steps: Contribution which is the submission of contributions by the public to the firm and Selection where the best submissions are selected. The term ‘value’ is viewed from different perspectives including the strategic value, economic value or service customer, provider (Helkkula, Kelleher & Philström 2012, 60). Therefore, the roles in value creation are imprecise and equal, thus making all actors the co-creators of value.

Statement of the Problem

Co-creation of value involves the collective effort of both the firm and the customers. Co-creation makes up that initiative of organizational management initiative, or form of economic strategy which brings different parties together such as the firm and its customers to produce a valued outcome mutually. The process elicits the contribution of new ideas from the customers which is subsequently inculcated as a blend of new ideas to the organization. The value is co-created when the customer uses his or her personal experiences in the firm’s product-service proposition to create value best suited for the customer’s utility and which provides greater value for the firms product-service investment in the form of increased revenue, new knowledge, profitability and superior brand loyalty and value. Significant challenges exist as Successful co-creation requires two fundamental steps which comprise contribution of ideas where: the firm faces the challenge of convincing the customer to make contributions towards the creation of value to a value proposition. However, the collection of contribution from customers is not a straightforward task as many of these customers have busy schedules to attend to the firms calls. As a result, most co-creation efforts are not successfully carried out. Second, the challenge of the selection process is that most submissions are not useful, impractical of making the selection is difficult to implement. Firms are in a dilemma when many of the customer submission is on the negative side of profiting the firm as the risk of fallout with the customer exist if their opinions are rejected and not included in the co creation process. The process of co-creation and direct interactions between the customer and the firm is becoming more challenging in value creation. Therefore, the problem confronting the research is to appraise co-creation for value creation: A basis for producer-consumer synergy.

Objectives of the Study

To determine co-creation for value creation: A basis for Producer-Consumer synergy.

The process elicits the contribution of new ideas from the customers which is subsequently introduced as a blend of new ideas to the organization. The value is co-created when the customer uses his personal experiences in the firm’s product-service proposition to create value best suited for the customer’s utility and which provides greater value for the firm’s product-service investment in the form of increased revenue, new knowledge, profitability and superior brand loyalty and value, “Co-opting customer competence”. They defined co-creation as “The collective creation of value by the firm and its customer; allowing the customer to inculcate their service experience to create the value which suit them (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004, p. 8).

Research Questions

Q1. What is co-creation and value creation?

Q2. What is co-creation for value creation: A basis for producer-consumer synergy?

Significance of the Study

The study shall proffer appraisal of co-creation and value creation: A basis for producer-consumer synergy. Co-creation makes up that initiative of organizational management initiative, or form of economic strategy which brings different parties together such as the firm and its customers to collectively produce a valued outcome mutually. The process elicits the contribution of new ideas from the customers which is subsequently inculcated as a blend of new ideas to the organization. The value is co-created when the customer uses his personal experiences in the firm’s product-service proposition–to create value best suited for the customer’s utility and which provides greater value for the firms’ product-service investment in the form of increased revenue, new knowledge, profitability and superior brand loyalty and value.

Research Hypothesis

H0 Co-creation for value creation as a basis for producer-consumer synergy is not significant.

H1 Co-creation for value creation as a basis for producer-consumer synergy is significant.

Definition of Terms

Co-creation

Co-creation makes up that initiative of organizational management initiative, or form of economic strategy which brings different parties together such as the firm and its customers to collectively produce a valued outcome mutually. The process elicits the contribution of new ideas from the customers which is subsequently inculcated as a blend of new ideas to the organization. The value is co-created when the customer uses his personal experiences in the firm’s product-service proposition–to create value best suited for the customer’s utility and which provides greater value for the firms product-service investment in the form of increased revenue, new knowledge, profitability and superior brand loyalty and value.

Value proposition

According to Chandler and Lusch (2015, 6 – 8) this makes up an invitation to engage in service from one actor to another. This is the principle which is applied in the process of value creation.

Value creation

The fundamental focus of value creation lies in the inculcation of the customers experience together with the current and expected future visions (Helkkula et al. 2012, 65).