Towards the Development of a Research Methodology for Studying the Nature of Value Co-Creation in Internet Driven Businesses

Abstract

Value co-creation, is an emerging innovation, marketing and business paradigm describing how customers and users are seen as active participants in the design of personalized products, services and experiences (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004; Payne, Storbacka, & Frow, 2008). Often this participation is organised via the Internet to enable the opportunity for customers to integrate their knowledge, experience and skills into existing, modified or entirely new market offerings reflecting their personal preferences, needs and contexts (Sawhney, Gianmario & Prandelli, 2005). There is a growing body of literature dedicated to the discussion of value co-creation frameworks, mechanisms and processes, however, these typically focus on the study, discussion and analysis of a small number of cases using deep, ethnographic description of their practices aiming at conceptualization and categorization of the different types of interactions between end users, the firm and the value network. Although very useful, such an approach misses the advantages of an empirically driven quantitative approach that would be able to benefit from larger size samples of firms and that could be more appropriate for theory building through the development and testing of hypotheses.