Co-creation in conventional and collaborative businesses/La co-creacion en negocios convencionales y colaborativos/Co-criacao em negocios convencionais e colaborativos.
| Autor | Nogueira-Pellizzoni, Lfvia |
| Cargo | Research article |
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Introduction
In today's post-industrial society, consumption can take on multiple facets; this study focuses specifically on collaborative practices. This collaborative consumption would then be motivated by the possibility of having access to goods and services in a temporary and market-mediated way, without the need for permanent purchase and possession. This configures a consumption that exploits to the maximum the potential of goods and services, besides providing engagement and social interaction (Bardhi & Eckhardt, 2012). If, on one hand, the varviety of products and ease of access are the cause and effect of global markets, on the other, modern social and technological changes have also led consumers into seeking out alternative practices, meaningful consumption and a search for the meaning of life (Sawhney, Verona & Prandelli, 2005).
Because of their cultural and industrial features, businesses search for organizational solutions to improve the consumer experience and consequently create value for the consumer (Cietta, 2012; Lipovetski, 2009; Nunes & Da Silveira, 2016). Thus, one of the phenomena of adding value to something is known in marketing studies as co-creation of value, in which people express behavioral attitudes to contribute new ideas to the production of new products and, consequently, to their marketing strategies. Realizing that their ideas have been accepted, consumers relate to products in an affective manner, seeking experiences and therefore feeling that they have co-participated (Galvagno & Dalli, 2014; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004a).
In the business context, environments that are open to the co-creation of value gain strength, as innovation and flexibility are the main drivers of value. To forge this path of co-creation, Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004b) propose that building blocks for high-quality interaction be constructed based on Dialogue, Access, Risk-Benefit Assessment and Transparency (DART).
On the other hand, among market segments and considering the meanings attributed to the act of consumption, Lipovetsky (2009) highlights fashion as an important social phenomenon, in that a fashion item represents more than a consumer good (Cietta, 2012) and can take on several roles in the consumer's mind. Fashion can be used as a tool for communication, integration, self-esteem and/or transformation (in a "therapeutic" sense, in the search for affective compensation), among others (Miranda, Marchetti & Prado, 1999; Nunes & Da Silveira, 2016).
In view of the versatility and representativeness of the fashion sector, and going into more depth regarding the context of co-creation, this study had as an objective to understand how interest in co-creation is manifested in the clothing industry. To this end, the experimental method compared how consumers behave with regard to conventional clothing shops and to clothing sharing shops to identify differences in the form of consumption and its influence on the consumer's predisposition to co-creation. We elucidate, at this point, that a clothing-sharing store is characterized by allowing access to clothing items without definitive ownership of them, unlike a conventional store. For example, Zamani, Sandinb and Peters (2017) point out that clothing libraries are one of these business models characterized by the sharing of clothing for a given time, through a monthly membership fee.
We highlight here that, in this study, these two formats are treated as being, respectively, conventional businesses and collaborative businesses. It is understood that collaborative businesses differ from traditional ones in some aspects, among them the possibility of expanding consumer participation in the processes inherent in the creation and co-creation of products, and greater interaction between company and consumers through digital platforms that result in gains for both sides.
This study is justified by changes in the manners in which consumers think and act towards businesses, where the potential for empowerment appears to form a connection to the businesses. Ramaswamy and Gouillart (2010) also point to co-creation as an interesting strategy for some types of companies, as it generates engagement and experience for the consumer. In terms of methodology, the experimental study also made it possible to collect evidence about cause and effect, which makes it possible to understand which variables are causes and which are effects of a particular phenomenon (Ertz, Durif & Arcand, 2016; Perret, 2015; Vieira & Tibola, 2005).
This study has the following structure, which will be detailed in the topics and subtopics ahead: first, we present the theoretical contribution that works with the tripod cocreation of value; blocks of co-creation dialogue, access, risk-benefit and transparency (DART); and collaborative consumption; then, detail the methodological procedures, elucidating the hypotheses tested, the experimental design and its scenarios, the methodological care as well as the methods of data collection and analysis; next, we present the analysis and discussion of the data and discuss the tested hypotheses, to finally present the conclusions of the study.
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Theoretical framework
The theoretical contribution of this study lies mainly in the analysis of the combination of concepts and practices of co-creation of value and collaborative consumption. Therefore, clothing businesses are inserted in the conceptual presentation in order to complement the pillars that guide the objective of the research. In this direction, the co-creation of value, the blocks that can promote it as well as the studies on collaborative consumption are explained ahead in order to substantiate the article.
2.1. Co-creation of value
In academic terms, the process that allows companies and consumers to interact in the creation of value is known as co-creation of value. This type of experience has led companies to focus their attention on the creation of value from the perspective of customers' experiences (Ikeda & Modesto Veludo-de-Oliveira, 2005). Co-creation of value occurs when an organization that had previously been product-centered, changes its perspective to focus on the consumer's expectations.
In this direction, the consumer starts to play a fundamental role so that this service is shaped taking into account their needs and desires, and the perceptible attributes of the service or product are maximized. Therefore, the role of mediated digital networks, especially the internet, is important as it potentializes the contact between companies and consumers in an agile and direct way. This occurs when, for example, through the internet the consumer is able to maintain a dialogue with the company which, in turn, is willing to use this channel to collect information, suggestions and the like from its public about a determined service or product.
This transition, however, does not represent a transfer of activities to the customers nor customization of goods and services (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004a). Co-creation of value allows producers and consumers to interact in a productive interface with an ongoing capacity to innovate and generate profits for the company (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2000; Vargo & Lusch, 2004). With co-creation, customers and suppliers interacting side by side, creating value in the development of new business opportunities, in which the manner in which value is created, distributed and paid for, runs counter to the traditional model of demand versus supply (Galvagno & Dalli, 2014).
The discussion about this change in roles, in which the consumer operates in partnership with the supplier, was introduced by Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2000). It concerns the collaborative interaction between customers and suppliers, and it considers value as going beyond the price system that mediates the relationship between supply and demand to a perception of intangible attributes permeated by experience, recognition, participation and personalization. Later, Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004a, 2004c) problematized and noted the various manners in which co-creation can provide improvements, whether they are in the experiences of consumption and use (Gentile, Spiller, & Noci, 2007; Payne, Storbacka & Frow, 2008) or by spurring innovation of new goods and services (Bitner, Ostrom & Morgan, 2008; Sawhney et al., 2005).
Many studies have used the term co-creation in various areas, extending the range of theoretical approaches and perspectives in the field. To summarize and classify existing research and to understand the past and the present state of studies regarding co-creation, Galvagno and Dalli (2014) undertook a bibliometric review of the literature and identified three main theoretical perspectives.
The first is the perspective of the science of services, in which co-creation is considered intrinsic to the service, "as if service could not exist without co-creation" (Galvagno & Dalli, 2014, p. 650). For the authors listed in this line of thought, every service implies co-creation, this being the center of the theoretical development of the science of service oriented to innovation (Vargo, Maglio & Akaka, 2008; Ostrom et al., 2010; Maglio, Vargo, Caswell & Spohrer, 2009; Bitner et al., 2008). The second is the perspective of innovation and technology management, which studies structural engineering and the flow of interaction with consumers in service, innovation and value creation (Nambisan & Nambinsan, 2008). The third is the perspective of marketing and consumer research, which examines the role of the consumer in the process of co-creation and his or her motivations for engaging and interacting with businesses (Bolton & Saxena-lyer, 2009; Dong, Evans & Zou, 2008).
Although they adopt different approaches, these perspectives share a common perception of the consumer as a collaborator who interacts with the business to create mutual value for the participants, and they all perceive...
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