Customer brand co-creation behavior: conceptualization and empirical validation

Abstract

Purpose: This paper expands on existing co-creation knowledge in order to accurately conceptualize, operationalize and contextualize the customer brand co-creation behavior concept from a customer perspective. Design: A quantitative approach is adopted in this study, using structural equation modelling to verify the co-creation of brand value for those customers who co-create. Findings: A new four-dimensional co-creation behavior concept is supported, highlighting the role of development, feedback, advocacy and helping, in the co-creation of brand value. Further, a range of customer-level and brand-level antecedents are empirically verified. Research implications: The research takes a customer-centric view of co-creation and in doing so provides new insight into the effect on the co-creator. Additionally, the research offers an improved level of specificity in the co-creation domain by conceptualizing, operationalizing and contextualizing customer co-creation in a comprehensive research study. Practical implications: Findings offer new insight to brand managers, identifying avenues for increasing customer participation in co-creation programs and critically, highlighting that cocreation behavior has positive effects on the co-creator's perception of brand value. Originality: The customer-centric approach offers an original perspective from which to explore co-creation, demonstrating the positive potential of co-creation in brand management strategies.

Assessing Consumers’ Co‐production and Future Participation On Value Co‐creation and Business Benefit: an F-P-C-B Model Perspective

“…Different studies have highlighted that the concept of coproduction comprises of (indirect or direct) "co-working with customers" (France et al 2018;Jaspers and Steen 2019) or active involvement of the customers in the service or product design process (Schallehn et al 2019). Co-production may be conceptualised through the interactions of the customers by the acts of mental and physical activities and mutual exchange Busser and Shulga 2019;Grover et al 2020).…”

“…This co-creation is not now considered as a concerted endeavour of the producers alone (Vargo and Lusch 2016;Tu et al 2018). Now, customers need not be solely targeted of all marketing activities but their participation in these activities as active operant resources helps to co-create values (Saarijarvi et al 2013;France et al 2018). Value co-creation is needed to be characterised with the help of the roles of customers and firms whereas recognition of such value creation would come from the firm and the customers (Grönroos and Voima 2013).…”

A Conceptual Framework for Value Co-Creation in Service Enterprises (Case of Tourism Agencies)

“…In the case of small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that operate in service sectors, value co-creation is a critical issue [44][45][46][47][48][49]. It enables them to enjoy the resources, knowledge, competencies, and assets of customers and other stakeholders for value creation and delivery [50].…”

Theory and practice of brand co-creation

“…The case of German prosthetics manufacturer Ottobock -105 -co-creators; duration of co-creation; expertise of co-creators; importance of employees. With regard to the first of those, brand co-creation in consumer markets mainly takes place between end-consumers and the company (France et al, 2018) while, in industrial markets, many more stakeholder groups than just consumers are involved in the process (Törmälä and Saraniemi, 2018). Turning to the second unique characteristic, consumer engagement in the co-creation of B2C brands is based on motivations guided by personal purposes while interactions in the B2B setting are driven by the occupational purposes of paid professionals (Mäläskä et al, 2011).…”

“…There is therefore a further need for research to foster understanding of how managers can connect with customers and all other stakeholders, to build sustainable brand relationships by increasingly adopting a management-oriented perspective on brand research instead of the clearly favoured consumer-oriented view (France et al, 2018).…”