Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a new enriched approach regarding the prosumer concept and a framework for efficient managerial decision, making use of prosumer innovative potential. Design/methodology/approach – Based on relevant literature sources, this paper takes the prosumer concept one step further from usual interpretations suggesting its innovative potential for companies which adequately address this issue. Depending on their own objectives, the domain limitations and the creativity they are allowing regarding specific activities or campaigns, companies can open up and develop prosumer co-creation strategies. Findings – The authors develop a new prosumer understanding of value co-creation and design prosumer-oriented marketing strategies as a starting point for important decision making and complex marketing campaign creation in an always changing environment. Originality/value – The research contributes to the existing knowledge on prosumerism, being at the same time valuable for managers, especially in the marketing domain. Marketing corporate specialists do not have guidelines on how to understand, relate and engage these new consumers in corporate activities and therefore loose a potential creative external partner and a significant competitive advantage.

Abstract-In an extremely competitive global market companies strive for supremacy. The goal is to differentiate from competitors and the key element for success is innovation. But how to innovate in an always changing environment? How to maintain market position with such demanding, price sensitive and informed customers? It seems almost impossible. But nothing is impossible when organizations are making use of their main competitive advantage, their intellectual capital, for transforming passive consumers into prosumers. Prosumers are creative individuals who have a predilection for engaging in activities concerning firms or institutions with which they have a relationship with. They are valuable assets if fully engaged with a company. Therefore, the authors argue that human capital can stay in touch through structural capital with consumers and develop a consumer capital -a relationship with them. If this activity is creative and engaging, a number of consumers can change and become prosumers, providing feedback, creative ideas and information for innovation. Alongside prosumers companies can co-create value which differentiates their offer from competition and establish a relationship of trust and involvement which determines consumer recommendations and influence in the market. The proposed interrelated system can be managed with the scope of transforming consumers into prosumers for innovation purposes.Index Terms-Co-creation of value, collaborative innovation, intellectual capital, prosumer.

-The advances in telecommunications and the rise of the Internet have empowered traditional consumers to act as value producers. They started with self-service technologies and developed unlimited reach and collaboration possibilities in the virtual world. By commuting principles and long established stages of development these new consumers are spreading in all domains, triggering an avalanche of prosumer-oriented features. The present study is trying to classify and explain the origin of all prosumer activities we are able to discover in the physical and the digital environment. The insight in the prosumer world helps us understand how the society and corporate entities could effectively relate to this new consumer role.

No abstract

The present paper examines the CRM evolution from extended customer to prosumer management, proposing a new trend, the Prosumer-oriented Relationship Management (PoRM) as a natural pursue of market position and marketing advantages. The prosumer innovative potential can be engaged and taken as an advantage with appropriate tools and management orientation. As argued by the authors, PoRM is enabled by IT, therefore the IT tools functionalities have to comply with prosumer characteristics and desires. The originality of this approach is represented by the functional guide for selecting the best IT tools functionalities for prosumer creative engagement.