An empirical examination of consumer co-creation process

Consumers increasingly collaborate with the company and other consumers across various phases of firm’s new product development (pre-launch activities through ideation, design, and testing) and after-launch marketing process (post-launch activities through promotion, pricing distribution, and maintenance). The purpose of this study is to examine factors influencing consumer participation in firm’s pre- and post-launch co-creation. We propose that company-led efforts through enhanced knowledge sharing with consumers and perceived equity lead to effective dialogical interactions between company and consumers and among consumers, leading to a higher level of consumer participation in both pre- and post-launch co-creation. The proposed model is empirically tested by structural equation modeling using survey data from online video game players, a context rich in consumer co-creation. We find that consumer-to-consumer interaction enhances consumer participation in both pre-launch and post-launch, while business-to-consumer interaction enhances consumer participation only in pre-launch but not in post-launch.