Care About Your Customer: A Use and Gratification Study Regarding Co-creation and Customer Engagement on Facebook

Abstract

Companies and their brands initiated various Co-creation practices on social media. Co-creation improves value for both companies and their customers. This study explored the customer perspective of interest for participating in such Co-creation opportunities on Facebook. Drawing upon the Use and Gratification Theory we investigated the intention of customers to take part in Co-creation on Facebook. We related people’s Co-creation behaviour to the expectancy of satisfaction or reward for their actions. Customer Engagement is an additional concept that expresses the emotional attachment of customers to brands and companies. Underlying reasons were investigated why customers would consider taking part in Co-creation. The quantitative survey inquired customers about their expected Benefits, level of Customer Engagement and their intention for taking part in Co-creation with companies on Facebook. Our results showed that Customer Engagement can be considered as the most important predictor for the intention to Co-create instead of User Gratification. Hedonic Benefits are the most important drivers for User Gratification, playing a key role in the people’s intention for taking part in Co-creation practices. Overall, people’s intention for Co-creation on Facebook increases when they have a meaningful and pleasurable way of experiencing the companies’ products that concern them.