Developing Consumer Value Co-creation Strategies for the Online Environment

Due to the Internet and the Web 2.0 technology enabling information access and content contribution without precedent in history, a new consumer co-creation philosophy emerged. Today's marketing services have witnessed an increased collaboration between empowered consumers and organizations on different levels in the online environment. In the tough battle for market success, smart service providers of the 21(st) century envision a solution, to harness creative potential and contribute new value to their services by involving consumers in a collaborative service development process, reinforcing the idea that customer experience is central to enterprise value creation and innovation. The co-creation approach is extremely promising even if it is not enough explored at a conceptual level. Thus, service companies face uncertainty when deciding which co-creation strategy to use because there are no guidelines for possible outputs. The present paper aims to examine the co-creation concept with its value perspectives, from which to determine potential co-creation strategies to use. Through a literature review the authors delineate the role of the consumer in value creation and appropriation regarding the co-creation approach. Based on two variables, organizational orientation and consumer subjective culture, they classify four main co-creation strategies for services in the online world: service customization, crowd-sourcing, co-production and creative commons. These strategies are furthermore discussed based on relevant examples and explored from a value creation possible output point of view. In this way managers will have all the information available for successful decision making when designing a co-creation initiative. The purpose of the current research is to contribute to the development of a more pulsating service culture, always on alert regarding consumer needs and co-creation opportunities.