Creative Consumers Cook up Value in Conversations

Abstract

Ramaswamy (2011; 195) argues that the core principle of co-creation is “engaging people to create valuable experiences together, while enhancing network economics.” He goes on to suggest that this engagement should take place on platforms created by firms. Arguments such as this have become prevalent in the Service Dominant and Co-creation literatures (Vargo & Lusch, 2004; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004), but little research has been conducted to date to show how engagement can result in value creation, or how by coming together and conversing on these platforms, individuals can create something more valuable than they might when acting separately or communicating only with firms (one exception being the study of community practices by Schau et al. (2009)). We focus on how consumers generate novel ideas in online conversations, and search for evidence of a collective form of creativity. Our goal is to answer the questions of how online consumer conversations generate creativity, and how it results in value co-creation.