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Top1. Introduction
Before the concept of co-creation, the traditional way of marketing focused more on the company than on the consumer. Notably, consumers were only active participants at the “point of exchange” (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004). The conventional approach was where firms were known to create value, put it on the market where the value will be exchanged in terms of goods and services made available to the consumer, as suggested by Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004). Presently, consumers are more actively involved in the process of creating value since the traditional method of marketing is no longer active. With the introduction of co-creation, the firm and the consumer can interact based on value (Figure 2), and the consumer can create value based on previous experiences in using a product. Ergo, communication has become an essential tool to the extent that the more consumers interact with companies, the more value is created.
The creation of value is described by Grönroos and Voima (2013) as when consumers spawn “value-in-use”; in that case, co-creation becomes the mode of communication (Grönroos & Voima, 2013). The term co-creation has become very popular in recent literature and according to Sheth and Uslay (2007), as it plays a significant role when it comes to the angle of service in marketing (Sheth & Uslay, 2007). However, Grönroos and Voima (2013) assert that the subject has not been well scrutinized, and there is not enough rational understanding of the term co-creation. (Grönroos & Voima, 2013). For this paper, co-creation is defined as the process where consumers of Starbucks, in collaboration with the company, can contribute to the company in a way that gives equal value to both parties. In the process of co-creation, the consumer dominates and regulates how to create value and what value in itself should entail, and this standpoint of view is, according to Helkkula and co-workers (2012). By making this claim, Helkkula and co-workers argued that it is the consumer who controls value and how to create value as well (Helkkula, Kelleher, & Pihlström, 2012). In a similar scholarly study by Sawhney and co-workers, they discussed co-creation as a process where the consumers are expected to exhibit their ingenuity and add up their thinking artistry to solve a problem at hand. This implied that consumers play an active role in the process of co-creation in bringing up innovation (Sawhney, Verona, & Prandelli, 2005). If this is the case, then what will motivate a consumer to bring on ideas and inputs in order to create value? From recent literature, much has not been done about what conditions or circumstances influences a consumer's willingness to co-create value
In this study, factors that are critical in motivating a consumer to bring on ideas and inputs in order to create value will be evaluated. Mainly, Consumer experience, empowerment, security, and online platforms were considered as some of the main factors that will urge consumers to engage in co-creation activities. Ultimately, the study made on these factors influencing consumers’ willingness to co-create, will enhance the process where companies seek to fill in the lapses in terms of providing enough resources to consumers’ willingness to co-create as the benefit of co-creation is enormous to both the consumer and the company in terms of value creation. More often than not, most researchers who writes about customer co-creation focuses on the service industry such as aviation and so on. However, researching on Starbucks reflects the extent to which customer co-creation can go. In view of this, the research sets to answer the following questions:
- 1.
What motivates customers of Starbucks to engage in co-creation activities?
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How do consumers feel about releasing personal information on the website?
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How do consumers of Starbucks enjoy value as a result of co-creation?