Identification of barriers to co-create on-line: the perspectives of customers and companies

Abstract

Purpose: Value co-creation is an important topic of interest in marketing domain for the past decade. Co-creation via the internet has received a particular attention in the literature (O’Hern and Rindfleisch, 2010). Although there have been substantive number of studies of what motivates customers to participate in value co-creation in the internet-based platforms, there is a lack of research of what the deterrents are that may prevent customers from contributing their ideas online. This research was undertaken to define the deterrents from the customers and companies’ point of view. Furthermore, the difference, if exists, between the users’ and marketing professionals’ ranking of the inhibitors to co-creation online is also studied. Design/methodology/approach: This exploratory qualitative research is based on 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with customers and 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews with marketing specialists from different companies. Spearman’s rank correlation is applied to explore the relationship between the internet users’ and marketers’ responses. Findings: There are nine constraining factors. The results show that although there is a repetition of the mentioned constraining factors indicated by the both groups of the interviewees, the ranking of the barriers is distinctive. Research Implications: New conceptual information is received on what restrains customers from co-creation from both customers’ and companies’ point of view. Practical Implications: This paper explains the potential problems to be confronted when launching a co-creation project in the internet-based platforms and offers managers a preliminary guide to comprehension of the users’ deterrents rating. Originality: The paper that defines deterrents to co-creation online.